Are dying languages worth saving? (fwd link)

[Neskie Manuel]

I disagree with Kenann Malik.  My question is why should some language
get preference over others, such as English or French in Canada over
any other indigenous language, especially in the land where it is
spoken. There is a specific colonial strategy in place to displace
original inhabitants, so that the colonial power can reap economic
benefits.   This is one reason why languages die, because  governments
chooses to elevate some language above what the original language of
that land is.

Do the governments not reap benefits from the land where those
languages are spoken? Whether it is to use that land as a basis for
getting loans from the World Bank or extracting minerals from the
land, governments do.  Governments should support the continued
existence of languages where economic benefit is derived from the land
where languages are spoken.  Languages are specific to a time and
place and very much tied to economics.

Just up the road at the largest Salmon Run in the world.  The
Department of Fisheries and Oceans has paid to ensure that all signage
and posters are in both French and English, but why not Secwepemc.  I
can speak and read both English and French, but what I want is
Secwepemctsin.  This is the language of this land.

It's not irrational to say we should support all languages.  To me
it's irrational that we should be promoting any one language above
another.

Yeri Tsucws.


On Tue, Sep 14, 2010 at 10:18 PM, Phillip E Cash Cash
<cashcash at email.arizona.edu> wrote:
> 14 September 2010
> UK
>
> Are dying languages worth saving?
>
> How people are trying to preserve endangered languages
>
> Language experts are gathering at a university in the UK to discuss saving
> the world's endangered languages. But is it worth keeping alive dialects
> that are sometimes only spoken by a handful of people, asks Tom de Castella?
>
> "Language is the dress of thought," Samuel Johnson once said.
>
> About 6,000 different languages are spoken around the world. But the
> Foundation for Endangered Languages estimates that between 500 and 1,000 of
> those are spoken by only a handful of people. And every year the world loses
> around 25 mother tongues. That equates to losing 250 languages over a decade
> - a sad prospect for some.
>
> Access full article below:
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11304255
>