Comments on: Losing Languages

By: Bahrom

Bahrom — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 03:29:50 +0000

Thanks for introducing me to David Harrison. Its good to know who is chapioning endangered languages.

I have a real interest in endangered langauges since I spent three months in Tajiksitan living in a village where a minority language, Yaghnobi, is spoken. I don’t think their langauge is dying out, but each generation seems to be learning a more “diluted” version of the langugage as they borrow more and more words and grammatical constructions from the surrounding majority language of Tajik. So, langauge endangerment is not just about languages going extinct, but also about languages losing their distinctiveness and individuality.

By: elenamary

elenamary — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 23:35:17 +0000

Olgita, my foster child, grew up speaking zapoteco and although her family still speaks it sad he seems to lean on Spanish much more. It is really sad to see. I remember her only speaking to me in Zapoteco until she realized people looked down on it…

By: xoloitzquintle

xoloitzquintle — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 15:37:52 +0000

I would think you would know that languages, like cultures, are not static things but rather they are dynamic processes. Yes, they can disappear, but you don’t think of the languages that are being created, mutated, adapted, rediscovered, and in some cases reinvented. Just like we really can’t artificially create a language (think the more or less failed Esperanto), we can’t really keep languages from dying off. I agree that they certainly should be preserved through media and archives, but often there is an unwillingness to engage in (or pay for) these efforts.

Nonetheless, I always encourage my students to record (in as many ways as possible) the stories and the languages of their parents, grandparents, or even their great grandparents if they are still around.