Announcing the Foundation for Endangered Languages, and its Newsletter, Iatiku
Nicholas Ostler
nostler at chibcha.demon.co.uk
Mon Apr 15 01:19:04 UTC 1996
The Foundation for Endangered Languages, which began its life at a meeting
in London in January 1995, but was first publicised at the University of
Bristol Seminar on the Conservation of Endangered Languages in April 1995,
has now reached the stage of asking for subscriptions. These will most
immediately support the production and distribution of the Newsletter, the
fees for formal incorporation of the Foundation as a charitable "Company
Limited by Guarantee" in the UK.
We have, in fact, already received a request for a modest level of support
from the Livonian community (in Latvia, on the Baltic coast) for support of
a lexicographical project. This would neatly combine community support with
documentation.
There have in fact now been 6 meetings of the Foundation, the latest one
just before the LAGB meeting at the University of Sussex, in England, on 11
April. The current Committee members are:
Nicholas Ostler President
Andrew Woodfield Secretary
Daniel Nettle Treasurer
Stephen May Publicity
Christopher Moseley Group Liaison
The Foundation is affiliated to the Philosophy Department at Bristol University.
We should have liked to send this issue of Iatiku to anyone who wishes for
a copy, but since it is quite bulky (36 pages) and international postage is
significant, I can only do so to those who are willing to subscribe to the
Foundation for the year beginning on 1 May 1996.
To give you some idea of what you would be subscribing to, I enclose in
this message:
I. The Foundation's Manifesto, agreed at Meetings 4 and 5
II. The Editorial of the 2nd issue of Iatiku, FEL's Newsletter
III. Details of How to Subscribe
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I. The Foundation's Manifesto
1. Preamble
1.1. The Present Situation
At this point in human history, most human languages are spoken by
exceedingly few people. And that majority, the majority of languages, is
about to vanish.
The most authoritative source on the languages of the world (Ethnologue,
Grimes 1992) lists just over 6,500 living languages. Population figures
are available for just over 6,000 of them (or 92%). Of these 6,000, it may
be noted that:
* 52% are spoken by fewer than 10,000 people;
* 28% by fewer than 1,000; and
* 83% are restricted to single countries,
and so are particularly exposed to the policies of a single
government.
At the other end of the scale, 10 major languages, each spoken by over 109
million people, are the mother tongues of almost half (49%) of the world's
population.
More important than this snapshot of proportions and populations is the
outlook for survival of the languages we have. Hard comparable data here
are scarce or absent, often because of the sheer variety of the human
condition: a small community, isolated or bilingual, may continue for
centuries to speak a unique language, while in another place a populous
language may for social or political reasons die out in little more than a
generation. Another reason is that the period in which records have been
kept is too short to document a trend: e.g. the Ethnologue has been issued
only since 1951. However, it is difficult to imagine many communities
sustaining serious daily use of a language for even a generation with fewer
than 100 speakers: yet at least 10% of the world's living languages are now
in this position.
Some of the forces which make for language loss are clear: the impacts of
urbanization, Westernization and global communications grow daily, all
serving to diminish the self-sufficiency and self-confidence of small and
traditional communities. Discriminatory policies, and population movements
also take their toll of languages.
In our era, the preponderance of tiny language communities means that the
majority of the world's languages are vulnerable not just to decline but to
extinction.
1.2. The Likely Prospect
There is agreement among linguists who have considered the situation that
over half of the world's languages are moribund, i.e. not effectively being
passed on to the next generation. We and our children, then, are living
at the point in human history where, within perhaps two generations, most
languages in the world will die out.
This mass extinction of languages may not appear immediately
life-threatening. Some will feel that a reduction in numbers of languages
will ease communication, and perhaps help build nations, even global
solidarity. But it has been well pointed out that the success of
humanity in colonizing the planet has been due to our ability to develop
cultures suited for survival in a variety of environments. These cultures
have everywhere been transmitted by languages, in oral traditions and
latterly in written literatures. So when language transmission itself
breaks down, especially before the advent of literacy in a culture, there
is always a large loss of inherited knowledge.
Valued or not, that knowledge is lost, and humanity is the poorer. Along
with it may go a large part of the pride and self-identity of the community
of former speakers.
And there is another kind of loss, of a different type of knowledge. As
each language dies, science, in linguistics, anthropology, prehistory and
psychology, loses one more precious source of data, one more of the diverse
and unique ways that the human mind can express itself through a language's
structure and vocabulary.
We cannot now assess the full effect of the massive simplification of the
world's linguistic diversity now occurring. But language loss, when it
occurs, is sheer loss, irreversible and not in itself creative. Speakers
of an endangered language may well resist the extinction of their
traditions, and of their linguistic identity. They have every right to do
so. And we, as scientists, or concerned human beings, will applaud them in
trying to preserve part of the diversity which is one of our greatest
strengths and treasures.
1.3. The Need for an Organization
We cannot stem the global forces which are at the root of language decline
and loss.
But we can work to lessen the ignorance which sees language loss as
inevitable when it is not, and does not properly value all that will go
when a language itself vanishes.
We can work to see technological developments, such as computing and
telecommunications, used to support small communities and their traditions
rather than to supplant them.
And we can work to lessen the damage:
* by recording as much as possible of the languages of communities
which seem to be in terminal decline;
* by emphasizing particular benefits of the diversity still
remaining; and
* by promoting literacy and language maintenance programmes, to
increase the strength and morale of the users of languages in danger.
In order to further these aims, there is a need for an autonomous
international organization which is not constrained or influenced by
matters of race, politics, gender or religion. This organization will
recognise in language issues the principles of self-determination, and
group and individual rights. It will pay due regard to economic, social,
cultural, community and humanitarian considerations. Although it may work
with any international, regional or local Authority, it will retain its
independence throughout. Membership will be open to those in all walks of
life.
2. Aims and Objectives
The Foundation for Endangered Languages exists to support, enable and
assist the documentation, protection and promotion of endangered languages.
In order to do this, it aims:-
(i) To raise awareness of endangered languages, both inside and outside
the communities where they are spoken, through all channels and media;
(ii) To support the use of endangered languages in all contexts: at
home, in education, in the media, and in social, cultural and economic
life;
(iii) To monitor linguistic policies and practices, and to seek to
influence the appropriate authorities where necessary;
(iv) To support the documentation of endangered languages, by offering
financial assistance, training, or facilities for the publication of
results;
(v) To collect together and make available information of use in the
preservation of endangered languages;
(vi) To disseminate information on all of the above activities as widely
as possible.
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II. Editorial of the second issue of Iatiku, the Foundation's Newsletter
(Iatiku is the mother goddess of the Acoma tribe of New Mexico, who caused
people to speak different languages so that it would not be so easy for
them to quarrel. - Sam Gill & Irene Sullivan, Dictionary of Native
American Mythology, New York: OUP 1992: p. 5. Contra: Genesis
XI, 1-9.)
This is the second issue of Iatiku, the first public expression of the
Foundation for Endangered Languages. The Foundation is conceived as a free
and independent association of those who are concerned at the loss of more
and more of the world's languages...
Since the first issue of Iatiku appeared, on the 1st of May last year, the
Foundation has elected its first officers, identified the range of
languages with which it will first look to set up links, and agreed its
Manifesto.
The Foundation will be constituted formally in the UK as a company limited
by guarantee. This will enable us to act as a recognized charity. There is
a draft Memorandum and Articles of Association available for members to
inspect, and these will be the Foundation's constitution.
We aim to ally concerned linguists with the growing interest and
compassion of the public at large, to give the cause of endangered
languages as sharp a profile among monolinguals in the first world as
among those whose own linguistic heritage is actually threatened.
Based initially in a corner of Europe, south-west England, where there is
no surviving competition to the global weed of English (like other weeds,
not without its charms), it is not involved directly in particular
linguistic battles, but it is well placed for access to the world's
Anglo-Saxon media. We are not an outgrowth of any one language's, or group
of languages', struggle for recognition. At the same time, the presence of
Celtic languages, in Wales and by conscious revival in Cornwall, is close
enough for us to hear the din of real combat, and to witness the nurturing
of real linguistic growth.
We have access to some of the best linguistic expertise in our part of
Europe, and through global media to members all over the world. Yet we are
an organization not just of linguists, but of concerned and knowledgeable
citizens of the world. A major aim is to provide funds for recording
lesser known members of world's stock of languages.
But we also have a mission is to explain and interpret to our neighbours
what the pattern of those languages is like and how that pattern is
changing, not always for the better. Through this we can hope to do
something to influence that change, as well as to increase scholarly
knowledge.
This Issue of Iatiku
This is the second issue of our newsletter, which is intended as a
quarterly publication. Conditions are still exceptional, however, and with
this delivery it only just avoids being an annual one! With our
organization still to be formally established, and the newsletter's
circulation still very restricted, we have not yet attempted to secure
articles written specifically for Iatiku.
Even so, there is no lack of material that warrants distribution. Besides
the accounts of our own meetings, and the re-echoes, as far as we have been
able to trace them of our Seminar on the Conservation of Endangered
Languages held last April), I have included a variety of pieces that have
appeared on the Internet in the course of the last year. The reach of the
Net is, as yet, nothing like universal, even among the concerned linguists
who we see as the first, core members of our Foundation. Even for those
with access to the Net, it is difficult to keep track of all the new
developments, so as to find the information when one has the opportunity to
use it. Here you have a repository of new developments world wide in
Endangered Languages since 1 May 1995.
We pass on notes of appeals with relevance to the survival of languages,
which give readers a chance to do something immediate and concrete for the
cause. These vary: in this issue, one concerns action directly relevant to
a tiny language community, a second is a request for funds for a minority
language publishing venture, and a third is an explicitly political call.
Among descriptions of recent meetings, we offer November's Symposium in
Tokyo which served as the inaugural meeting of the International Clearing
House for Endangered Languages, which has been set up as part of the UNESCO
initiative and manages the Red Book. This section is drawn from the
Clearing House's own Newsletter. Besides the overview of the symposium
itself, it contains much useful comment and suggestion from Profs Shigeru
Tsuchida (of Tokyo) and Akira Yamamoto (of Kansas). In particular,
Yamamoto lists ten talking points, issues which could usefully set the
focus for future conferences.
We propagate the latest details known to us on new activities around the
world which increase knowledge of, or concern for endangered languages:
here we bring you up to date on Terralingua (Partnerships for Linguistic
and Biological Diversity), which is being organized by David Hermon from a
base in Hancock, Michigan, USA; and the recent Language Documentation
Urgency List, set up by Dietmar Zaefferer at the University of Munich,
which is now beginning to collect language descriptions.
The next two sections are a miscellany, first of fragments of discussions
of issues (and a poem!) related to endangered languages, and then of a few
sources, both in the electronic world and the real one, where useful
information may be sought. Discussions range widely:- how should a
linguist react when resources seem to go to languages with little hope of
recovery? what use is literacy to peoples whose languages may only ever
have flourished with out it? what consistency can or should there be in
what linguists pay their informants? The round-up of sources continues
with a list of forthcoming conferences (interpreted widely enough to
include a film festival), and recent publications.
In future issues I shall be including readers' letters, and also literary
or discussion pieces which will start to make Iatiku a real forum for
Endangered Languages. As the Foundation's activities begin to make
themselves felt, they will provide a natural focus for Iatiku articles, but
the Newsletter should remain more general than the Foundation, with a place
for topical content, wherever the diversity of human language, and efforts
to protect it, may roam.
This will be the last issue of Iatiku that is issued free. It contains, as
a final page, a form to request membership of our Foundation: you will be a
"Friend" of Endangered Languages until we are fully incorporated later this
year. Later issues of Iatiku will go to subscribing members only. I hope
you will want to join our enterprise in taking action on behalf of the
world's endangered languages. And if you do, please write in with your own
suggestions and comments on this issue, as well as contributions for the
next one -- due out in July!
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If you wish to support the Foundation for Endangered Languages, please fill
out the order form below, and send it with your subscription to the
Foundation's Treasurer:
Daniel Nettle, FEL,
Anthropology, University College London
Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, England
Those who find difficulty (technical or financial) in sending subscriptions
in one of the three ways suggested should contact the President (Nicholas
Ostler, address as below) in the hope that an accommodation can be reached.
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Please enrol me as a Friend of Endangered Languages. I enclose my
subscription fee, as indicated below, for the year beginning 1 May 1996.
With my receipt I I expect the latest issue of Iatiku (no. 2), and
thereafter to receive the quarterly newsletter Iatiku, together with full
details of the Foundation's incorporation, meetings and other activities in
that year.
Subscription fees in pounds sterling or US dollars:
[] Individual member (19 pounds or 30 dollars) Regular.
[] Individual member (9 pounds or 14 dollars) Concessionary:
please enclose proof of unwaged status.
[] Corporate member (59 pounds or 95 dollars) Voluntary bodies
(incl. university dept)
[] Corporate member (99 pounds or 155 dollars) Official bodies:
(incl. university)
[] Corporate member (199 pounds or 310 dollars)
Commercial companies.
* * *
[] I enclose a cheque (in pounds sterling) payable to "Friends of
Endangered Languages".
[] I enclose a check (in US dollars) payable to Nicholas Ostler, and
annotated "Subs. to FEL: year from 1 May 1996"
[] I enclose proof of having sent an equivalent sum in my own
currency to the society's account, "Friends of Endangered Languages",
Account no: 50073456, The Cooperative Bank (Sort code: 08-90-02), 16 St.
Stephen's Street, Bristol BS1 1JR, England.
Signed: Date:
Name: Tel. (daytime):
Address: Fax:
e-mail:
*******************************************************************************
Thank you for your support.
Nicholas Ostler
President, Foundation for Endangered Languages
Address for correspondence:
Batheaston Villa, 172 Bailbrook Lane
Bath BA1 7AA England
tel +44-1225-85-2865
fax +44-1225-85-9258
e-mail nostler at chibcha.demon.co.uk
Nicholas Ostler
Linguacubun Ltd
Batheaston Villa, 172 Bailbrook Lane
Bath BA1 7AA England
+44-1225-85-2865 fax +44-1225-85-9258
nostler at chibcha.demon.co.uk
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