Linguist: Increasing immigration sparks debate over language (fwd)

[Keola Donaghy]

Very interesting that she declared Hawaiian "dead as far as usage is
concerned." Nice to know that my colleagues, myself and so many of our
children speak a dead language. I didn't know that.

Keola

Indigenous Languages and Technology <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU> writes:
>Good article, and I certainly agree that English-only is not only very
>wrong but also pointless as well.
>
>I was, however, somewhat amused to hear the claim that English is spoken
>by the "majority of people around the world."  The world has a
>population of more than 6 billion, and even very liberal estimates of
>those who are reasonably proficient in English usually put the figure at
>around 1.5 billion, with many other more conservative estimates putting
>the figure more around 800 million to one billion.  Even the most
>liberal estimates would put the number of first, second, and foreign
>language speakers of English at only around 25% of the world's
>population.  I would not be surprised if nearly half of the world's
>population has studied English at one time or another, but obviously
>studying often does not lead to ability to speak a language.
>
>phil cash cash wrote:
>
>>Linguist: Increasing immigration sparks debate over language
>>http://www.bgdailynews.com/articles/stories/public/200403/31/0daJ_news.html
>>
>>By Jason Dooley, jdooley at bgdailynews.com
>>Wednesday, March 31, 2004
>>
>>With the American population becoming increasingly multilingual, debates
>>over whether the nation should adopt English as an official language
>>have intensified over the past several years.
>>
>>But the United States is far from alone in struggling with the issue,
>>linguist Christina Bratt Paulston said during a lecture at Western
>>Kentucky University on Tuesday night.
>>
>>“A couple of weeks ago, 5,000 high-school students rioted in the streets
>>of Riga, the capital of Latvia,” Paulston said. “They did it because
>>the Latvian Parliament had passed a law that said all Latvian students
>>had to have at least 65 percent of their curriculum in the Latvian
>>language.”
>>Most of the students were of Russian descent, the children of those who
>>occupied Latvia for half a century until the early 1990s.
>>
>>“Nearly all of the Russian speakers in Latvia are monolingual, while
>>nearly all of the Latvian speakers are multilingual,” Paulston said.
>>“This is a classic situation for language shift, and the Latvian
>>Parliament was trying to prevent the death of their language.”
>>
>>A similar situation exists now in France, where universal public
>>education was one of the outcomes of the French Revolution in the late
>>18th century.
>>The spread of public education in the French language lead to the death
>>of several other dialects, such as Occitan, Paulston said.
>>
>>Now, the Academie Francaise closely guards its language – to the point
>>that the French Supreme Court had to decide whether the word
>>“hamburger” should be accepted into the French language.
>>
>>Language rights are becoming a growing issue worldwide as mass
>>communication and globalization of trade have made the world a much
>>smaller place, Paulston said.
>>
>>“We had a church excommunicated by the Vatican not too long ago because
>>they still wanted to use Latin in the mass,” she said. “So these issues
>>have been coming up a lot in different contexts.”
>>
>>The idea of language rights is a fairly new one, but so is the idea of
>>human rights in general, Paulston said.
>>
>>“Human rights is a fairly generally accepted notion, but you may be
>>surprised to hear that it really didn’t exist until after World War II
>>and the reaction to the Nazi atrocities,” she said.
>>
>>The United Nations, European Union and other international organizations
>>are being forced to look at the issue as more and more places like
>>Latvia face it, Paulston said.
>>
>>“It’s coming up for the UN, and at present, the EU is blackmailing
>>countries like Romania, Latvia and Bulgaria for recognition of minority
>>languages,” she said. “The EU has a charter for minority languages and
>>they just last week had a conference in Caledonia, Spain, about how
>>poor the EU is about language policies.”
>>
>>Meanwhile, in the United States, 28 states have adopted English as their
>>official language – Kentucky did so in 1984.
>>
>>Two others recognize two official languages – English and Cajun French
>>for Louisiana, and English and the Hawaiian language for Hawaii.
>>
>>“It’s interesting that the Hawaiian language, which is dead as far as
>>usage, is still recognized as an official language,” Paulston said.
>>Moves to classify the United States as English-only are probably
>>ill-conceived, since the vast majority of Americans already speak the
>>language, as do a majority of people around the world, she said.
>>Despite an unprecedented spike in immigration to America during the
>>1990s, only 3 percent of U.S. citizens said they spoke little or no
>>English in the 2000 census.
>>
>>However, 47 million Americans, about 20 percent of the country’s
>>population, said they speak a different language in their homes.
>>“Most (immigrants) are bilingual,” Paulston said. “That’s what makes
>>this issue sad – the loss of the heritage language. Ninety-four percent
>>of second-generation Latin Americans speak English, but only 60 percent
>>speak their native tongue.”
>>
>>English-only, then, is a movement with little purpose, she concluded.
>>“The argument for English-only is based on the idea that the most
>>dominant world language in the history of the world is under siege,”
>>she said. “It is not; it has never been stronger.”
>>
>>Jeanne Logsdon, a Western senior from Louisville, said she hopes America
>>doesn’t go English-only.
>>
>>“I’m going to be a teacher, and I don’t want to be in the situation
>>where I can’t communicate with my students,” Logsdon said. “So if I
>>need to speak in another language, then that’s fine.”
>>
>>Logsdon, who speaks some French in addition to English, said she wishes
>>she had taken Spanish classes during her education to better enable her
>>to work with students.
>>
>>“I spent two months in California last summer, working with inner-city
>>kids,” she said. “Sometimes, it was just awful because they spoke
>>Spanish and we couldn’t speak to each other.”
>>
>>
>>



=======================================================================
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/
=======================================================================