“The distribution of a language is a measure of the fate of an ethnic group.” (James Rubenstein) Saving Local Languages

An extinct language is a language once in use that is no longer spoken by anyone, anywhere. 516 languages are on the verge of extinction today. 46 in Africa 170 in the Americas 78 in Asia 12 in Europe 210 in the Pacific UNESCO Atlas of Endangered Languages LANGUAGE EXTINCTION

Spanish missionaries in the 1500s found over 500 languages in the Eastern, Amazon region of Peru. Only 92 of those languages survive today. 14 of those survivors face immediate extinction because fewer than 100 speakers of them remain. Only seven of the 92 are spoken by more than 100,000 people. Quechuan peoples of the High Andes CASE STUDY PERU

Some endangered languages are being preserved. The EU has established a bureau for saving little used languages in Europe. Hebrew, for example, which was a written language only for thousands of years was revived from extinction with the creation of Israel in Thousands of new words had to be created to modernize the language. Celtic is also being preserved. PRESERVING LANGUAGES

MULTI-LINGUAL STATE The US and Canada are both relatively peaceful examples of multilingual states. Many Americans and Canadians speak more than one language, and often speak a language other than English, at home. Over 20% of the US population speaks a language other than English at home, and 35 million americans speak sPanish at home. More than 2million speak Chinese, and more than one million each speak French, German, Korean, Tagalog or Vietnamese. In Canada, 25% of the population (mostly QUEBEC) speak French. Please read both of these sections in the book (11 th Edition) carefully.

A number of world states have multiple languages spoken within them. Multilinguality can serve as a centrifugal force, threatening stability within a state. Examples: Nigeria and Belgium Southern Belgians (Walloons) speak French (Romance) Northern Belgians (Flemings) speak Flemish (Germanic) Southern Walloons historically dominated the economy and government and imposed French as the national language. This discrimination angered the Flemings and aggravated relations. Flemings pushed to divide the country into two independent regions: Flanders and Wallonia. Road signs in each region are monolingual but the capital, Brussels, is a legally bilingual zone. Tensions are particularly high along the border between the regions as there are pockets of Walloons in Flanders and pockets of Flemings in Wallonia. MULTI-LINGUAL STATE Switzerland is an exception, it is multi lingual and maintains peace with a decentralized government and frequent voter referenda.

MULTI-LINGUAL STATE Nigeria is also a multilingual state in which the multitude of languages has acted like a centripetal force. There are 527 distinct languages spoken by over 100 ethnic groups. The most widely spoken languages are Hausa (NW), Yoruba (SW) and Igbo (S). The Southern Igbos tried to secede from Nigeria in the 1960’s. The Northern Hausa claimed that the Yorubans have discriminated against them repeatedly. To calm the tensions, Nigeria moved the capital (FORWARD CAPITAL!!) from Lagos in the SW to Abuja in the center. The benefits of Abuja are that it is cdentrally located to all Nigerians and that none of the three largest languages dominates there. Nigeria also proclaimed English as its official language.

Basque is the only language in Europe surviving from before the arrival of Indo- European speaking settlers. It is spoken in by 600,000 people in the Pyrenees between northern Spain and Southwestern France. Video on Basque Separatism (click link) ISOLATED LANGUAGES An isolated language is a language unrelated to any other an not attached to any language family.

A globalized world needs a common language used to facilitate communication. English is increasingly becoming that language. A LINGUA FRANCA (International Auxiliary Language) is a language of intl communication that facilitates trade. English is a common one. Groups who learn English or another language as a lingua franca may learn a simplified form called a PIDGIN LANGUAGE. Pidgin languages are often used as trade languages. Hindustani in South AsiaIndonesian in Southeast AsiaRussian former USSR GLOBAL DOMINANCE OF ENGLISH Other common Lingua Franca languages: Swahili in East Africa

In the past the spread of a Lingua Franca came through migration Relocation diffusion) and conquest (hierarchical diffusion) (think Roman Empire). Under the British, English spread that way as well. Current English spread is through contagious diffusion. The diffusion spreads with mass media and internet (semi-hierarchical) and happens in two main ways: 1)Diffusion of new vocabulary, spelling and pronunciation Emerging dialects: Ebonics and Appalachian 1)Fusing English with other languages Franglais Spanglish Denglish DIFFUSION OF ENGLISH