Linguistics professorÂ’s new book laments dying languages (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

March 22, 2007
Linguistics professor’s new book laments dying languages

BY CLAUDIA SEIXAS
http://phoenix.swarthmore.edu/2007-03-22/news/17033

Assistant Professor of Linguistics K. David Harrison’s new book “When
Languages Die: The Extinction of the World’s Languages and the Erosion
of Human Knowledge” looks at what is lost from scientific, linguistic
and humanistic vantage points when a language dies by examining field
studies of endangered languages in Siberia, Mongolia, the Himalayas,
North America and elsewhere.

Harrison’s book is more commercially viable than many professors’
published works, and is accessible to a popular as well as an academic
audience. On March 1, it ranked #128,642 in Amazon.com book sales.
Because it tackles many humanistic concerns with an interdisciplinary
approach, many reviewers recommend “When Languages Die” not only to
linguists but to anthropologists and general readers. Linguistics major
Nathaniel Peters ’07 explained that a particular strength of Harrison’s
is the multimedia approach he took to his research. “It’s pretty darn
cool data,” Peters said. “Because of the nature of the research,
Harrison could have come up with a lot of diagrams, but anyone who’s
interested in singing songs can look at a video David has made and
enjoy that.”

Harrison’s new book is relevant because it discusses the task of
recording the unique perspectives on the world that disappear when a
language dies, Peters said. “It’s very good that a book like this is
being written because it’s simply true that when languages die,
cultural repositories of knowledge about ‘being a human being’ will be
lost, and languages are also just inherently beautiful,” he said. “When
Languages Die” covers the concept of language extinction and sheds light
on its relevance to human society and the human knowledge base. The book
draws on Harrison’s own research and case studies that put him in
contact with speakers of endangered languages — in some cases, the last
known speakers of a language.

As a linguist, Harrison encourages his students to “discover” languages,
many of which are undocumented and known only to its native speakers.
“Eighty percent of the world’s languages are undocumented by science,”
Harrison said. “There’s at least minimal documentation of only 15 to 20
percent of the world’s languages.”

“It’s amazing to be at a place like Swarthmore,” Harrison said. “The
students are so global in their thinking. I like the activist climate
here. When I say there is a language extinction crisis, I don’t have to
start [explaining why it’s important] from scratch because people here
understand that culture is something to be valued,” he said.

“The book is not only an appeal to linguists but it’s also trying to
give an unsentimental answer to [the question]: Why should we care that
languages are going extinct?” Harrison said. “Languages encode crucial
knowledge about species and ecosystems about which Western science is
still unaware of. We should try to do what we can to appreciate them.”

According to Harrison, 87 percent of the world’s living plant and animal
species — excluding microbes — have yet to be identified, documented or
classified by modern science. Indigenous cultures have very
sophisticated knowledge systems appropriate to their particular niche
in the world.

Many of these peoples harbor vital knowledge about the environment,
animals and plants. Harrison presents a case study of reindeer herders
in South Siberia who say “dongur” to indicate in one word “male
domesticated reindeer in its third year and first mating season, but
not ready for mating.” Such knowledge has been gathered over countless
generations and passed on through oral tradition. “It’s arrogant and
colonial of us to toss that knowledge on the scrapheap of history,”
Harrison said.

“There’s a knowledge gap between western science and culture and
indigenous cultures,” Harrison said. With environmentalism gathering
attention throughout the world, Harrison argues that citizens of
developed countries should be more attentive to the valuable resources
that exist in these unique cultural depositories, resources that are in
danger of dying out along with languages that transmit indigenous
knowledge.

At last count, there are about 7,000 living languages, about half of
which are projected to become extinct by the end of the 21st century.
Harrison does not use the term “extinction” in the conventional
literary sense. Rather, the term denotes the process by which
globalization and urbanization allow dominant languages to overcrowd
small and less spoken languages, prompting new generations of speakers
to assimilate the prevailing language.

Shoydak-ool Khovalyg, an epic Tuvan storyteller, is one of the rare
speakers Harrison highlights. Khovalyg told Harrison the tale of Bora,
a woman on a quest to resurrect her dead brother who uses her magical
powers and the help of a clever horse to change into a transgender
disguise, complete with a goose-head as a fake penis.

Language extinction destroys cultural heritage, since stories like those
told by the Tuvan storyteller are only transmitted orally. According to
Harrison, this results in the deterioration of the human knowledge
base. “Unique language systems give human insights into how the world
works. Since we don’t know everything about the universe, it’s foolish
to squander this information,” Harrison said.

Sentimentality can often disrupt the process of aiding endangered
languages by shifting the focus to preservation, when the goals of
linguists like Harrison are to document, maintain and revitalize the
endangered languages. Living Tongues (http://www.livingtongues.org) is
a non-profit organization Harrison helped found to address exactly
those issues. “I’m trying to do both science and activism,” Harrison
said. It’s up to the community to decide whether they will submit to
globalization or attempt to pass down their language to future
generations, Harrison said.

Harrison and Living Tongues’ mission is to give back to the community,
whether in the form of providing them with a storybook in their
language (sometimes the first book to be published), documentation or
sound recordings. Harrison has co-authored a Tuvan grammar dictionary
and is currently working with the National Geographic Institute to
travel, research, visit and map out hot spots of language endangerment
and diversity.

Recently, Harrison has moved beyond what he covered in his book to
develop an idea he described as “the triple threat.” “What I’m trying
to show in my work is how the biosphere is linked to the ethnosphere,
and the relationship between language extinction and knowledge systems
and extinction of species,” Harrison said. Harrison has taught
linguistics courses at Swarthmore including phonetics, phonology, the
structure of Tuvan and a seminar on endangered languages, the latter
two of which are based largely on Harrison’s research.

Harrison Magee ’09, who works with Harrison, agreed about the importance
of studying languages that are in danger of disappearing.

“Learning about an endangered language is such a beneficial thing to
study on many levels, not only to learn about linguistics, but also
human knowledge, how we talk, people and culture and ethnicity,” he
said. The Endangered Languages Lab works to create online talking
dictionaries and other resources for endangered languages.

According to Harrison, “we’re really in desperate need of linguists.
Linguists get to meet people in amazing places and learn knowledge
systems that have never been described. The feeling of really truly
communicating with someone in their native language when only 50 other
people speak it is very rewarding.”

“Studying an endangered language will tell you things you’ll otherwise
never know,” Magee said.Students reciprocate Harrison’s enthusiasm for
the field. “The greatest strength that David has is that he does very
interesting, very relevant research and integrates that into what he
does in the classroom,” Peters said. “I think he’s absolutely a
wonderful professor.”

“When Languages Die” is available in McCabe Library on the new book
shelf.

Disclosure note: Nathaniel Peters is a columnist for The Phoenix and had
no role in the production of this article.