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Also, looking at the link to the article, I found this quote:<br>
<p>"But in a lot of other places, Abrams said, English has a very high status
and, "This is driving the disappearance of languages around the world.""</p>
As I noted in my post earlier today, this is just nonsense--a case of confusing
apples with oranges. The article cites the example of Quechua, the decline
of which, obviously, has exactly nothing to do with the status of English.
The same could be said about most of the endangered languages in the world.
English does indeed have a high status as a FOREIGN LANGUAGE in most countries
around the world, but that does not mean that it is "driving the disappearance
of languages around the world." Indigenous languages are being replaced
by the dominant native languages of their societies, which, in most cases,
are not English. English is, after all, spoken by a relatively small (depending
on who is counting, 5 to 7) and shrinking percentage of the world's people.
I've lived in countries like Taiwan, Japan, and Thailand, where English
has been the most popular foreign language for more than a century, and I've
never met anyone in the non-English speaking world whose native language
was replaced by English, though I have met many people who could not speak
their parents' or grandparents' minority languages or dialects, due to the
increasing dominance of powerful national languages. <br>
<br>
If people cannot distinguish between the issue of English as an international
language and the issue of thousands of smaller languages being replaced by
a relatively small number of dominant national languages, then I can't see
how they can be taken seriously on their timestable for the extinction of
Gaelic. <br>
<br>
The idea ""Multilingual" societies, like Switzerland, really consist of mostly
separate monolingual populations living side by side" also sounds suspect
to me. From what I've heard, the multilingualism that exists in Africa and
S. Asia, for example, has existed for generations--long before the arrival
of colonial languages. It may be a true statement regarding Europe, but
I highly doubt if it applies to the rest of the world. <br>
<br>
Keola Donaghy wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="midfc.000f4a09004d73073b9aca007b78318a.4d730c@leoki.uhh.hawaii.edu">
<pre wrap="">Mahalo David, yes it appears that is where the article is, and apparently
they were referring to Scottish and Welsh Gaelic, not Irish. It is on the
nature.com website, but requires a subscription for access to the full
article.
There is a short piece on the Cornell website on the report, but still not
the whole report:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/03/9.11.03/language_death.html">http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/03/9.11.03/language_death.html</a>
Keola
Indigenous Languages and Technology <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU"><ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU></a> writes:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">It appears the report might be in the journal "Nature." Probably the
current issue. Although there might be another report behind that one.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
=======================================================================
Keola Donaghy
Hawaiian Language Curriculum and Technology Coordinator
Native Hawaiian Serving Institution Program
University of Hawai'i at Hilo
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:keola@leoki.uhh.hawaii.edu">keola@leoki.uhh.hawaii.edu</a> <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.uhh.hawaii.edu/~nhsi">http://www.uhh.hawaii.edu/~nhsi</a>
Kualono <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.olelo.hawaii.edu/">http://www.olelo.hawaii.edu/</a>
=======================================================================
</pre>
</blockquote>
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