LL-L "Language death" 2007.09.20 (01) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L  -  20 September 2007 - Volume 01
Song Contest: lowlands-l.net/contest/ (- 31 Dec. 2007)
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From: Mark Williamson <node.ue at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Language death" 2007.09.19 (03) [E]

While it is obviously an issue in Europe as well, I think the issue is
very different in its scope and nature. Regional languages are being
lost in Europe; in the Americas, all (non-colonial) languages are at
risk to some extent.

The linguistic diversity that would be present in Europe if all
minority languages perished would still be much greater than that of
the Americas if all minority languages were to perish.

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Language death

Well, Mark, as far as I am concerned, the situations may look more
dissimilar than they are. The only real difference is that in the "New
World" the result is less linguistic diversity, but Europe (and certainly
Russia and Siberia) is headed the same way.

Absorption of ethnicities and resulting language minoritizing and eventually
death in Europe has in large part taken place by way of colonial expansion.
We can trace it back to Greek and Roman powers, and it has been going ever
since.  For instance, what is now Eastern Germany was largely
Slavonic-speaking and began to be colonized in earnest in the 12th century,
with mass migration to that region from Germanic-speaking Western Europe.
The by then indigenous Slavonic populations (Polabians, Sorbs, etc.) came to
be marginalized, their languages were eventually "phased out" in churches,
and children were "encouraged" to assimilate to the prestige populations, to
lose their ancestral languages and in many cases to acquire new
Germanic(ized) names. Those that were "stubborn" enough not to do so
remained in "backward" villages in areas that were not attractive to the
Germanic-speaking prestige populations (such as today's Lusatia, a tiny
fraction of original Lusatia). Similar things happened to Sami-speaking
communities in Central and Southern Scandinavia and to Uralic-speaking
communities in Russia, before that to the various Iberian, Celtic (Gall,
etc.) and Greek communities under Roman colonization, to the Celtic-speaking
populations of Britain, etc.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

•

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