You can save this endangered language for only pennies a day; or you could let it die.

[Dennis Baron]

There's a new post on the Web of Language

"You can save this endangered language for only pennies a day; or you  
could let it die."

According to some alarming estimates, half of the world’s 7,000  
languages will die by the end of this century.  English, French, and  
Arabic probably won’t be among them.  Some people try to save the  
endangered languages by writing grammars and dictionaries and  
encouraging their use among schoolchildren, or by videotaping the few  
remaining speakers on the off chance that future generations will  
want to revive the lost tongue. Others take the fatalistic view that  
language loss, like forest fires, is nature’s way of clearing out the  
deadwood and encouraging new growth.  Forget Smokey the Bear . . .  
let the forests burn (so long as not too many expensive homes are in  
the way).  And since speakers of a language have made the choice to  
switch to something else, let the abandoned languages die (the choice  
to switch may not have been voluntary, but force, after all, is a  
natural phenomenon, just like indifference). ... The linguist David  
Harrison is now warning that a lack of linguistic diversity doesn’t  
just reduce our cultural options, it also poses a direct threat to  
our planet’s biodiversity.... But instead of cultivating endangered  
languages or recording them for posterity before they pass on, in  
countries all around the globe the speakers of majority languages  
would rather devote their resources and energy to protecting their  
already well-fortified languages from attack.  .... the County  
Commissioners in Beaufort, North Carolina, have ordered all foreign- 
language signs under their control to be removed (it’s not clear  
whether the county name, Beaufort, which is French, will be stricken  
from the local signage as well).  And in England, a Commission  
established after the London subway bombings wants to bar the spouses  
of immigrants from entering the U.K. until they pass an English test  
(a test that until fairly recently would have been failed by most of  
England’s monarchs or their spouses)....Truly endangered languages –  
those with mere handfuls of speakers instead of  millions – continue  
to disappear, sometimes without a trace, and not-so-endangered  
languages try to figure out how to get by in the face of juggernauts  
like English, French, and Arabic.  In contrast, the defenders of  
widely-spoken languages posture and pass unnecessary and ineffective  
laws.  The Arab League is calling for an end to “language pollution”  
in advertising and popular slang, while the government of Québec is  
busy measuring signs to make sure that the French words are twice as  
large as those in any other language.  And Beaufort, North Carolina,  
is placing signs in all the county offices asking, “Will the last  
speaker of English please turn out the lights?”  Needless to say,  
Beaufort is going to have one large electric bill.
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Dennis




Dennis Baron
Professor of English and Linguistics
Department of English
University of Illinois
608 S. Wright St.
Urbana, IL 61801

office: 217-244-0568
fax: 217-333-4321

www.uiuc.edu/goto/debaron

read the Web of Language:
www.uiuc.edu/goto/weboflanguage

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