GAELIC `EXTINCT IN 40 YEARS' (fwd)

[Matthew Ward]

Also, looking at the link to the article, I found this quote:

"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.""

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.

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.

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.

Keola Donaghy wrote:

>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:
>
>http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/03/9.11.03/language_death.html
>
>Keola
>
>
>Indigenous Languages and Technology <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU> writes:
>
>
>>It appears the report might be in the journal "Nature." Probably the
>>current issue. Although there might be another report behind that one.
>>
>>
>
>
>=======================================================================
>Keola Donaghy
>Hawaiian Language Curriculum and Technology Coordinator
>Native Hawaiian Serving Institution Program
>University of Hawai'i at Hilo
>
>keola at leoki.uhh.hawaii.edu        http://www.uhh.hawaii.edu/~nhsi
>Kualono                           http://www.olelo.hawaii.edu/
>=======================================================================
>
>
>

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