LL-L "Language survival" 2005.03.28 (08) [E

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From: "Jacqueline Bungenberg de Jong" <Dutchmatters at comcast.net>
Subject: LL-L "Language survival" 2005.03.28 (06) [E]

Re Language survival. Thanks Peter, Paul, Mark and Ron for all your
contributions.

There is another side to this story. It may be all a question of
contact. The dialects of two isolated villages, just a few kilometers
apart, can differ significantly. Historically, once a language is
written down, it becomes "fixed", there is less drift. The Academie
Francaise has fought bravely to keep French pure and they have had some
success. Languages that are only spoken, have no point of reference (
except listening to what the neighbors say ) and are more easily
influenced by "foreign" ways of expression, that slowly creep into the
local language. Of course the availability of all the mass media does
the same thing to languages that we speak and write now. Just think
about the amount of English computer terminology for which the
individual languages don't even bother to find an equivalent in their
own vernacular.
It is like grandmothers teapot. Either you keep using it, with the
chance of breaking it, or you put it on the shelf as an antique and it
has no real meaning in your everyday existence. Jacqueline

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From: "Szelog, Mike" <Mike.Szelog at citizensbank.com>
Subject: LL-L "Language survival" 2005.03.28 (06) [E]

Yes - I think writing does improve the survival - if you look at Native
American languages - most have not been committed to writing until only
recently. The ones that have been written for a while (Cherokee, Navajo,
Cree) are the ones that seem to be doing quite well (though they tend to
also have the largest amount of speakers). To look in my own backyard,
Passamoquoddy has improved quite a bit since it's been committed to writing
with a standard orthography.

Mike S
Manchester, NH - USA

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