Native tongue

[Matthew Ward]

Very interesting article.

One comment, though:  when reading articles about minority languages in
in the mainstream press, I frequently find that the writer sees
loanwords as an example of language loss.  This is kind of ironic,
considering the enormous number of loan-words in English--if the use of
loanwords was a sign of language loss, then English itself would be in
trouble.  The writer uses the example of the English word "vitamin"
being used in Yupik as an example of the instrusion of English, yet in
Mandarin Chinese, by far the world's largest native language, "vitamin"
is "weitaming," which is simply the English word "vitamin" rendered
phonetically into Mandarin.  There are literally hundreds of millions of
Mandarin speakers who cannot speak English even as a foreign language:
 obviously, using English loanwords like "weitaming" does not threaten
their language any more than tens of thousands of French loanwords
threaten English.

At any rate, another way of looking at loan-words is that they are an
example of the flexibility that all languages possess.  There are
several ways that languages create new vocabulary, one of which is
borrowing.  I don't see how borrowing can be regarded as damaging, if it
allows languages such as Yupik to be used in the modern world.  If Yupik
were to create a term like "vitamin" out of native roots, that would be
fine, but if Yupik speakers prefer the English loanword, then you have
the same result:  Yupik, by being used, is adapting to the modern world.
 Which, of course, is the whole key to survival.  The real tragedy is
disuse, which creates a deadly cycle:  languages do not adapt to the
modern world, which becomes a further excuse for disuse, which results
in less adaptation...

phil cash cash wrote:

>The following adn.com article was sent by:
>
>    phil cash cash (pasxapu at dakotacom.net)
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Native tongue
>While support has been strong for Yup'ik instruction  in schools,  that support may  be waning
>
>By JOEL GAY, Anchorage Daily News
>
>Published: April 20, 2003
>
>NAPASKIAK -- The first-grade classroom at Z. John Williams
>School could be anywhere in America. Pint-size wooden chairs
>and knee-high tables, plastic bins of crayons, walls plastered
>with colorful posters and strings of alphabet letters.
>
>But in Christine Samuelson's room, the alphabet is only 18
>letters long and A doesn't stand for apple. A is for angqaq,
>C means cauyaq and E is for ena.
>
>Samuelson teaches in Yup'ik, the mother tongue of the Eskimos
>who have inhabited the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta for thousands
>of years.
>
>You can read the full story online at:
>
>http://www.adn.com/front/story/2975432p-3009186c.html
>
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