11.306, Disc: Species Extinctions vs Lang Extinctions

[The LINGUIST Network]

LINGUIST List:  Vol-11-306. Mon Feb 14 2000. ISSN: 1068-4875.

Subject: 11.306, Disc: Species Extinctions vs Lang Extinctions

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1)
Date:  Tue, 8 Feb 2000 19:00:22 GMT
From:  "S.A. Castell" <engsac at ARTS-01.NOVELL.LEEDS.AC.UK>
Subject:  Re: 11.271, Disc: Species Extinctions vs Language Extinctions

-------------------------------- Message 1 -------------------------------

Date:  Tue, 8 Feb 2000 19:00:22 GMT
From:  "S.A. Castell" <engsac at ARTS-01.NOVELL.LEEDS.AC.UK>
Subject:  Re: 11.271, Disc: Species Extinctions vs Language Extinctions

This is a reply to Robert Orr's really interesting work on biology and
linguistics.  Just some first thoughts...

The parallels between the two areas of EB and HL are strong.
However to be devil's advocate for a moment,  how about a different
way of looking at both - looking within the larger languages for the
most exciting areas of change, looking within the human body for
the fastest-evolving life forms.

Perhaps as dispassionate linguists we should acknowledge the
inevitable rise to power of certain killer languages? It seems we
spend a lot of time whinging about the loss of fringe languages... (!)
we all know that though they are beautiful and complex, they
cannot be preserved alive (in their natural habitats) without a vast
lifestyle change none of us are really prepared to make. The
parallel is our worry about rainforest species extinction even as we
tuck into our MacDonald's.

In EB, why not watch the progress of super-bacteria, viruses and
different sorts of cancers? Humans are increasingly subject to
these kind of predators, often because of risks incurred by their
lifestyles.(Western diet/medicine etc)  They are new predators
which bring down the hegemony of mankind from within and cause
evolutionary changes in humanity. And serve us right.

Similarly, in HL, though English for example is 'eating up' other
languages in the same way that human development 'eats up'
tigers, rainforest species, etc, it is itself mutating and evolving as a
result of new sociolinguistic pressures; new evolutionary pressures
if you will - upon it.

I know there's more to language change than sociolinguistics, but I
doubt it would take five million years to evolve whole new languages
even if we were in the hypothetical position of starting with one.

The new languages we came out with, however, might have
distinctly different profiles from the ones we are used to seeing
disappearing. They'd have different features, just as the predators
which can be considered fittest for the human-dominated
environment of today are not highly evolved species of mammals
insects or birds but tough strains of rapidly-evolving bacteria.

Sarah Castell

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