In defence of 'lost' languages (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

In defence of 'lost' languages

By Duncan Walker
BBC News

Of the 6,000-odd languages in the world, one is said to disappear every
fortnight. Should the English-speaking world care?

Somewhere on the remote Timor Sea coast of north Australia lives Patrick
Nudjulu, one of three remaining speakers of Mati Ke.

It is problem enough that one of the other speakers doesn't live nearby
and speaks a slightly different dialect. But the 60-year-old Aborigine
also has to cope with the fact the other speaker is his sister - who
traditional culture has forbidden him from speaking to since puberty.

Patrick's language then, is almost certainly going to die out. It's not
the only one.

The problem is repeated to various degrees in practically every country,
with dialects vanishing under the weight of major languages like
English, says the writer Mark Abley.

'Pathetic'

It was 10 years ago that Mr Abley's interest in these disappearing
dialects was sparked by an elderly woman in Quebec, Canada, trying to
teach Abenaki to other members of her native American community.

[inset - WORDS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED
Coghal - big lump of dead flesh after a wound is opened (Manx)
Tkhetsikhe'tenhawihtennihs - I am bringing sugar to somebody (Mohawk -
Canada and USA)
Puijilittatuq - he does not know which way to turn because of the many
seals he has seen come to the ice surface (Inuktitut - Canadian Arctic)
Tl'imshya'isita'itlma - He invites people to a feast (Nootka - Canada)]

"I thought it was poignant and pathetic," says Mr Abley. "But I later
realised it was also very interesting that she had the passion to do
everything she could to revive her language."

Movies, computer games, music and TV shows do not get made in minority
languages and so the dialects start to become the preserve of the old,
says the author of Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages.

"One of the main things that's happening is that young people all over
the world are being exposed to 21st Century culture, which is very
often arriving in the form of English," he says.

Parrot talk

That languages occasionally disappear is nothing new.

Some 200 years ago the German explorer Alexander von Humboldt stumbled
upon the village of Maypures, near the Orinoco river, in what's now
Venezuela.

[inset - MORE WORDS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED
Onsra - to love for the last time (Boro - NE India and Bangladesh)
Sjonvarp - television (Faroese - a language in good health)
Nartutaka - small plum-like fruit for which there is no English word
(Wangkajunga, central Australia)
Th'alatel - a device for the heart (Halkomelem, Canada)]

While there he heard a parrot speaking and asked the villagers what it
was saying. None knew since the parrot spoke Atures and was its last
native speaker.

But such changes - whether they are caused by war, famine, marriage or
mass media - should not mean the loss of dialects is acceptable, says
Mr Abley.

English and other major languages, while often acting as a democratising
force, do not always reflect the breadth of meaning in the language
they supersede.

The Inuit language of Inuktitut, for example, has many verbs for the
word "know", ranging from "utsimavaa" - meaning he or she knows from
experience to "nalunaiqpaa" - he or she is no longer unaware of
something.

"The point is that it's not just picturesque details that are lost if a
language dies out, it's also a whole way of understanding human
experience."

Welsh porn

Most attempts to revive threatened languages flounder, but they can
succeed - particularly if they become a part of popular culture.

Think Lisa Simpson and her recent flag-waving on behalf of Cornish and
the teaching of Manx in Isle of Man schools.

But it is Welsh that stands out as a "great example", with popular TV
soap operas made in the language and bands like Super Furry Animals and
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci recording in it.

There's even been a pornographic novel written entirely in Welsh.

"That's all for the good because it means the language is flourishing,"
says Mr Abley.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4172085.stm

Published: 2005/01/19 10:39:39 GMT
© BBC MMV