Language, Mind and Society Essay

Discuss some of the economic, social and political factors which

accelerate the decline of threatened languages
Languages are a key part of and a monument to any culture; as we say in Irish, tr gan
teanga, tr gan anam (a country with no language is a country with no soul). here are
many different estimates as to the num!er of languages e"isting in the world today, one
reason !eing that it is difficult to define e"actly what is a language and what is not.
#ccording to Ethnologue, (Lewis, $. %aul (&d.), '(().), an encyclopedia of the world*s
languages, there are +, )() li,ing languages. -ome linguists estimate that o,er half of all
the languages in the world may !e threatened or endangered (.ettle /., 0omaine -.,
'(((, pg. 1), !ut first of all, what is a language and when is a language considered to !e
endangered2 -econdly, what causes languages to !ecome endangered2 In this essay I
will try to answer these 3uestions, and to focus on the social, economic and political
factors which contri!ute to the decline of these languages. Lastly, I would !riefly like to
look at why threatened languages should !e a topic of interest or concern and what can
!e done to sal,age an endangered language.
#s pre,iously mentioned, it is difficult to pin down the definition of a language.
#ccording to the 4"ford /ictionary, a language may !e defined as a system of
communication used !y a particular country or community (Oxford Dictionaries, 2010). 5y
this definition, it should !e relati,ely simple to estimate the num!er of e"isting languages,
!ut there are many issues to take into consideration concerning the way the method of
communication is used and its structure e.g. is it written and6or spoken etc. #lso, where is
the line !etween two distinct languages and two different dialects of the same language2
#nother ma7or difficulty comes from the fact that a lot of languages may not e,er !e
disco,ered if say, there are only a few speakers left or if the speakers li,e in a ,ery
remote area that hasn*t !een well e"plored. It is 3uite possi!le that tens of thousands of
languages ha,e e"isted since humans e"isted, !ut since the organi8ed recording of
languages is a relati,ely recent phenomenon, we ha,e little or no information on the ,ast
ma7ority of languages that ha,e !een in e"istence.
# language may !e endangered if there are a ,ery small num!er of people who use
it, !ut not necessarily. # ma7or factor deciding if a language is threatened or endangered
is whether it is consistently used in e,eryday life, and possi!ly most importantly, whether
the language is !eing passed onto the younger generation. 9rauss, (as cited !y
www.-IL.org), one of the first linguists to draw attention to the issue of endangered
languages, descri!ed different classifications of languages. :e said that a language could
!e considered endangered if it is now still !eing learned !y children, will; if the present
conditions continue; cease to !e learned !y children during the coming century and that
it could !e considered *mori!und* if it is no longer !eing learned as mother;tongue !y
children (9rauss,<))'). o descri!e the decline of a language, metaphors such as
language death, language shift, e"tinction and threatened languages, etc. hese
types of metaphors are usually used when descri!ing a species i.e. plants or animals.
=ew people ,iew languages in the same way as they are not li,ing things !ut as I will talk
a!out later, they are ,ery important for many reasons and should !e preser,ed.
Language decline is rarely a simple matter with only a single causing factor;
instead it is usually a num!er of interacting factors which make this change happen. #s
we can see, are a lot of different terms used to descri!e the decline of a language. =irstly,
there is sudden decline or death of a language, and there is gradual decline. -udden
decline usually occurs due to a de,astating incident of some sort, where the num!er of
speakers of the language rapidly diminishes due to disease, war6!attle or natural disaster.
>radual decline mostly includes language shift, where the speakers swap languages and
start speaking another in the place of their nati,e tongue. his can !e ,oluntary or
in,oluntary, as I will descri!e later. #lso, there are different ways that this shift can occur in
what is known as op /own or 5ottom ?p decline. op /own decline occurs when a
language is no longer used for official purposes and is replaced !y another language !y
the go,ernment, political matters, in education etc. 5ottom ?p decline is when the
language falls out of e,ery;day use and e,entually is only used in settings such as
religious ser,ices, as seen with Latin and -anskrit. (.ettle /., 0omaine -., '(((., pg. )<;
)'.) 5ottom ?p decline is possi!ly more threatening to a language as it is ,ery likely that
the language will !ecome mori!und in only a couple of generations. I will now e"amine
the ,arious social, economic and political factors that cause and contri!ute to these types
of language decline.
-udden decline can !e caused !y some of these factors, e.g. in the case of a
political uphea,al or in,asion6take;o,er. >enocide and mass;murders may occur as seen
in tri!al areas, where one tri!e destroys the land and kills many mem!ers of another;
when this occurs, a language*s speakers may ,irtually wiped out and so the language
!ecomes e"tinct. #nother political cause of sudden language death is disease. =or
e"ample, when &uropean countries such as -pain, %ortugal, Italy, =rance and 5ritain
went o,er to the #mericas, they !rought many diseases with them against which the
nati,es had no immunity. (.ettle /., 0omaine -., '(((, pg. <((;<(<.) #s a result of this,
thousands if not millions of speakers of nati,e #merican languages died, and so the
languages were placed in great danger and many !ecame e"tinct. #lthough healthcare
has come on leaps and !ounds in the last few centuries, historically disease was
de,astating to many people and their languages.
-udden decline of Irish was seen in Ireland in the <@A(s due to the >reat =amine,
a potato !light that wreaked ha,oc on the population, for many of whom the potato was a
staple food. In the <@B< Census, it was shown that appro"imately '.B million or 7ust under
D(E of the Irish population spoke Irish, compared to A(E in <11B;<@((. (Class notes,
Feek @) he >reat =amine occurred from <@AB;<@A) and the population of Ireland
decreased !y a!out '.B million !etween death and emigration. # large proportion of those
who died or emigrated were from the >aeltacht areas in the Fest of Ireland. %olitics
played an important role in the famine as the go,ernment at the time greatly
underestimated the seriousness of the !light. #lso, during the famine, some aid was
pro,ided in the form of imported mai8e, soup kitchens and workhouses !ut rations were
small;si8ed and disease raged in many of the workhouses. It was clear that not enough
money was spent on relief and that had the go,ernment had different policies on
distri!uting aid, more people may ha,e !een sa,ed. :ere we can see how political and
economic factors contri!uted to an already dire situation, and had a knock;on effect on
IrishG the census in <@)< showed that only <)E of the population spoke Irish, 7ust under
two thirds of a million people (Class notes week @).
>radual decline is slightly more complicated than the sudden decline of a language
as it may occur o,er many years or generations and many factors may !e in,ol,ed. In
gradual decline, the speakers shift o,er to another, usually more dominant language. #
*new* language causing gradual decline of another may !e introduced to an area !y a
political and economic factors such as political takeo,er, in,asion, coloni8ation,
immigration, an influ" of wealth to an area or !y the spread of the de,eloped world, to
name a few. his can !e seen in many #frican countries, where &nglish and =rench are
spoken as first languages or eagerly learnt as second languages. &nglish and =rench are
sometimes called killer languages (.ettle /., 0omaine -., '(((, pg. B.) as they
commonly peripherali8e nati,e and indigenous languages. Fe can see the e"tent of the
spread of some languages through the statistic that )+E of the world*s languages are
spoken !y AE of the world*s population. (Crystal, '(((, pg. <A.).
In some cases, people ha,e no choice !ut to shift from using their own language
and to start using another due to discriminati,e laws and coercion. Laws that target and
marginali8e the speakers of a language can !e ,ery effecti,e and detrimental to that
language. 4ne would think that the domain of language is difficult to police or control !ut
this does not deter some go,ernments from trying. %eople who are under such
persecution such as the 9urdish peoples in urkey, are more likely to stop speaking their
own language and shift to the dominant language. ?p until <))<, e,en the pri,ate use of
9urdish was !anned in urkey, and this change only came a!out due to the fact that the
go,ernment were pressuri8ed !y the &uropean ?nion and other human rights
organisations, (#kreyi, $., '(<<) as their laws were seen as ,iolating the /eclaration of
:uman 0ights. :ence, we can see the powerful effect that a go,ernment and its laws can
ha,e on a language and how some people ha,e ,ery little choice !ut to cease speaking
their own language.
4n the other hand, there is ,oluntary language shift, where the speakers choose to
swap from speaking their own language to another. :ere, there are economic, social and
political factors at play. $any people feel that to !e included in society, including social
and economic acti,ities, they must swap to the more dominant language. his may also
occur if a person wishes to partake in political matters, if the other language is used in
go,ernment (which shows op /own decline of the nati,e language). (.ettle /., 0omaine
-., '(((, pg. )<;)'.) -ometimes, a person*s political allegiance can change, which can
also influence their decision of which language to speak.
-ome people see language shift as a positi,e thing, a progressi,e step. %arents
can feel that their children should learn the more dominant language so that they can
ha,e a !righter future with more prospects, as highlighted !y the linguist, %eter Ladefoged
(as cited !y .ettle /., 0omaine -., '(((, pg. <AB). Ladefoged (<))') noticed that in some
9enyan communities, parents are proud and encouraging of their children to learn the
national language, -wahili, and see this as a positi,e change that outweighs any regret
at the loss of their tri!al languages /espite the fact that this language shift is considered
,oluntary, do these people really ha,e a choice2 o speak their own language could
isolate them and limit their 3uality of life, whereas if they shift to the more dominant
language, they can impro,e this; no one wants their children to !e limited in any way if it
can !e a,oided and so the options are hardly e3ual.
Language shift can take a few generations to place a language in danger. # three;
generational shift can sometimes occur (.ettle /., 0omaine -., '(((, pg. <D+) in the
following wayG the first generation may !e monolingual when a new language is
introduced to their community. heir children, the second generation, may !e !ilingual i.e.
proficient in !oth languages. :owe,er the third generation, the grandchildren of the first
generation and children of the second, may ,ery well !e monolingual in the new
language. hus, the nati,e language that was the first language of the community only a
few years ago is not !eing passed onto young speakers and so gradually, the language
!ecomes e"tinct as the remaining speakers age and die.
4nce a new language is introduced to a country, a cultural wa,e of change can
happen. owns and larger settlements are usually the first places where this occurs.
:owe,er, in many countries, migration to the !igger towns and cities is ,ery common for
reasons such as !etter employment opportunities. his happens e,en today in Ireland;
young 3ualified people from the last remaining strong;holds of Irish in the Fest of Ireland
migrate from their >aeltacht communities to the !igger #nglophone cities such as Cork
and /u!lin. &migration is !ecoming an e,en !igger pro!lem in as it was during the >reat
=amine of the <@A(s and the <)@(s due to the glo!al economic recession. Fith less and
less work a,aila!le in Ireland, particularly in more rural areas, there are people lea,ing on
a daily !asis to find work in places such as #ustralia, &ngland and #merica. Fe can only
wait and see what effect on Irish this will ha,e, !ut undou!tedly it is threatening its future.
5riefly, I would like to look at why endangered languages should !e sa,ed and why
they are important. =irstly, as pre,iously stated, a language is crucially important part of
any cultural identity and of history. #ccording to 9enneth :ale (<))B), a linguist (as cited
!y :arrison, 9./., '((1, pg. 1) Fhen you lose a language you lose a culture, intellectual
wealth, a work of art. It*s like dropping a !om! on a museum, the Lou,re. #ny language
pro,ides us with a look into the li,es of the people who speak or spoke that language,
helping us to learn more a!out the world around us. #lso without a ,ariety of e"isting
languages, we would lose our traditional cultural wealth (Crystal, '(((, as cited !y
-al8mann H., '((1, pg. <)D). =inally, the study of languages is a science; the are
fascinating in themsel,es and the their preser,ation is key. If e,ery endangered language
were to die out, the human race would surely !e at a disad,antage, from many
perspecti,es.
here remains the 3uestion of what can !e done to sa,e endangered languages
and whether anything should !e done. Careful language planning is re3uired to re,erse
any language decline; :e!rew is a ,ery good e"ample of a language that has !een
successfully re,i,ed. %re,iously, it was mostly used in religion i.e. in the orah. -ince the
foundation of the state of Israel in <)A@, :e!rew has truly reco,ered and is spoken !y
o,er D million Israelis as their first language. Fith diligent efforts to raise the profile of the
language, to moderni8e the ,oca!ulary and grammar and to increase the num!er of uses
and speakers of the language, an endangered language may !e sal,aged (Class notes,
week +) !ut this is often ,ery difficult due to the political, economic and social forces as
mentioned a!o,e.
Languages are !ecoming e"tinct e,ery day at an e,er;increasing rate, due to many
interacting social, economic and political factors as I ha,e tried to descri!e in this essay. It
is a great pity that this is happening !ut gi,en the adapti,e nature of humans and the fact
that the e,erything around us is constantly changing, it appears that this is 7ust a part of
life. #fter completing my study and writing an essay on this topic, I can*t help !ut wonder
whether this is the natural way of the world; !ut hopefully, through the preser,ation, study
and recording of endangered languages, we can prolong their lifespan for as long as
possi!le and preser,e the cultures that they !elong to.