1. Why Do People Preserve Local Languages?
Ch. 5 Key Issue 4
Why Do People Preserve Local Languages?

2. Preserving Language Diversity
Languages disappear as speakers adopt other languages or the speakers die out. Need to write languages down (have a literary tradition)!
Extinct languages
Political dominance or cultural preferences cause one group to use another language over a local one

3. Fifty to ninety percent of the world's languages are predicted to disappear in the next century, many with little or no significant documentation

4. Reviving Extinct Languages
Hebrew
Official language of Israel along with Arabic
Used in Jewish services
Provided cultural unity between migrants and refugees from other countries/cultures who spoke different languages
New words had to be invented- telephone, car.

5. Children are taught simultaneously in Arabic and Hebrew in Jerusalem.
FIGURE 5-21

6. Preserving Endangered Languages
Survival based on political and economic strength
Celtic (an Indo-Euro Branch)
Original language of Br. Isles fled west when Germanic tribes invaded
Found today: Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Brittany Peninsula (France)

8. Multilingual States
With 200 countries and about 7000 languages, countries must deal with multilingualism, which can pose cultural and political challenges
Belgium
South Walloons (French) vs. North Flemings (Flemish)
Difficulty sharing national power- want separate countries
Regional variation (North vs. South) but bilingual Brussels (capital)
Switzerland
Decentralized gov’t, local gov’t power = national toleration; different official languages spoken locally
Differs from situation in Belgium

9. FIGURE 5-23a

10. FIGURE 5-23b

11. FIGURE 5-24

12. Multilingual States US Canada India Current issue over Spanish use
French vs English in Quebec
India
Official languages correspond with the different States within India

16. Monolingual States
Some states exists where almost everyone speaks the same language
Japan
Iceland
Denmark
Portugal
Uruguay
Poland
Lesotho
Due to migration and diffusion, no country is truly monolingual

17. Official Languages
In a country with linguistic fragmentation, an official language(s) is adopted to tie the people together
Hopes to promote communication and interaction among peoples who speak different languages
Problems:
Nigeria
Rejection of using the language
Reflection of the country’s history- former colonies adopting former colonizer’s language as official

18. Isolated Languages Lack of interaction helps preserve language
Basque: Pre P.I.E. speakers, isolated in Pyrenees Mtns.
Icelandic: least changed; Norwegian migrants isolated- no contact with local speakers or back home. Nothing in common with other Germanic languages- they “developed” over time

19. English as a Global language?
If a global language means:
Everyday use for all people in world: NO!
Growth rates are lowest in English speaking countries
Many people resist switching to English
Common language for trade and commerce around the world(lingua franca): YES!
Current trend is to use English for science, technology, travel, business, education

20. Dominance of English
English is the language for int’l communication = Lingua Franca
facilitates trade among speakers of different languages
explains why govt’s choose English as official language even when little of the population speaks it
Mandatory learning of English in other countries

21. FIGURE 5-1

22. Diffusion of English
Languages used to diffuse relocationally through force and conquest (Roman and Br. Empires)
Now = expansion diffusion
New words being hierarchically diffused from “common” people upward (Ebonics: gumbo, jazz)
Fusing with other languages
Franglais, Spanglish, Denglish
English words/phrases are favored
Hablo un mix de dos languages.

23. How do languages still diffuse today?
Lingua Franca- a language that two people speaking different languages can communicate with (Global example: English, Regional example: Swahili)
Used for trade and commerce
Pidgin Language- used for easier understanding, two languages are simplified and combined into a new language.
The first ever lingua franca was a pidgin language: Frankish- a mixture of Arabic, Italian, Greek and Spanish. Became the common language of Mediterranean trade

24. FIGURE 5-27