World languages are disappearing: experts (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

World languages are disappearing: experts

Mon Oct 29, 2007 1:30pm IST
By Jalil Hamid
http://in.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idINKLR20239520071029?sp=true

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters Life!) - Every two weeks on average, one of the 6,500
languages of the world vanishes with the death of its last elderly
speakers, taking with it a wealth of cultural knowledge, experts say.

At a recent meeting in the Malaysian capital, linguistic experts said the
United States, Canada and Australia were the worse off, with a wealth of
Asian languages also under threat.

"There is a vast treasure house of human knowledge," said Nicholas Ostler,
President of Foundation for Endangered Languages, a UK-based group.

"So when a language is lost, it's just not the words but typically it's a
kind of knowledge that came with that language."

According to a report in U.S. magazine Cultural Survival, 89 percent of the
154 tribal languages left in the United States were in imminent danger of
extinction, with more than half having only a handful of elderly speakers.

In the state of Oklahoma for example, at least 14 languages -- including
Hitchiti, Kaw, Kitsai and Peoria of the native Americans -- are no longer
spoken.

The situation is no better in many parts of Asia, despite the region's
cultural diversity. Experts said many governments were unwilling to address
the issue for the sake of national unity.

"Traditionally, large number of languages have been seen as contributing to
divisiveness to countries that are harder to govern, may be more unruly or
may be poorer," said Ostler.

"Diversity is seen as a load on the government to deal with it," he told
Reuters.

DISAPPEARING DIALECTS

In the Indian Ocean island of Andaman, the largest language there is down to
just 20 speakers. And in tiny Brunei, linguists say some minority languages
could face extinction within a generation or two, leaving behind only two
or three languages.

"All the minority languages and dialects of Brunei are endangered," said
Adrian Clyne, an English lecturer at a Brunei university. "In most cases,
they are undocumented."

In Pakistan, linguists say Siraiki, a language spoken by 40 million people
in the southwestern districts of the Punjab province, is under threat as
people turn to English and Urdu in a bid to better their social and
economic standing.

"They feel this Siraiki language has nothing to offer," said Pakistani
linguist Saiqa Imtiaz Asif. "Siraiki-speaking students face constant
dismissals, inequalities and put-downs."

"Siraikis have to learn English and Urdu to survive, to get good jobs.
Probably they will come back to their heritage but it might be too late by
then," she told Reuters.

China, which has some 235 living languages and dialects, is not immune to
language loss in the wake of the rise of Mandarin, said Picus Sizhi Ding, a
lecturer at Macau Polytechnic Institute.

As the predominant language, Mandarin has been vigorously promoted under the
current language education policy, inevitably marginalizing other languages
and dialects, he said.

There are few signs of hope, experts said. In south Australia, for example,
the Kaurna people in the Adelaide plains have been working with linguists
and musicians to reclaim Kaurna language that was considered to be extinct.

"If the new generation can be interested in a language, perhaps it doesn't
need to die after all," said Ostler of the Foundation for Endangered
Languages."

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