The article “Vanishing Languages,” published by Russ Rymer in 2012, presents an astonishing visual of fading cultures through the dying of tribal languages. Throughout Rymer’s article, it is emphasized that specific language and communication are essential to tribal culture – but languages are fading away. The article provides an in-depth look at three languages in particular: Tuvan, Aka, and Seri – dwindling languages with words that do not have equal counters in any other language (Rymer, 2012). Rymer begins the article with an illustration of a place called The Republic of Tuva located in Russia. The Tuvan language has specific words that mean specific ideals in the culture. For example, Rymer states that “khoj özeeri” means to slaughter …show more content…
Russ Rymer showcases the importance of this specific language to the culture of individuals speaking Aka. Rymer uses the Aka word “mucrow” as an example, as it means “old man” to some, but to individuals speaking Aka, “mucrow” is a uniquely loving term for any age (2012). The Aka language is closely tied with the culture of Palizi, India (Rymer, 2012). Similarly, a tribal language of Mexico called Seri is also considered to be important to the tribe culture, as Rymer calls the language “a seed of their identity” (2012). According to Rymer, over the course of time, the Seri have identified hundreds of species that modern “scientists have only begun” to identify (2012). These species all have been titled with unique names of the Seri language (Rymer, 2012). With the numbers of speakers of Tuvan, Aka, and Seri vastly diminishing, their unique cultures are diminishing as …show more content…
As discussed in World Geography class, the world has become more globalized in the modern world due to the expansion of the internet and transportation for easier travel to areas of the world. Through the internet and tourism, the spread of more populous languages grows. According to the Globalization and Diversity textbook, through globalization, smaller cultures have a hard time catching up with the rest of the world; thus, these cultures must adapt to the dominate culture. The Tuvan, Aka, and Seri cultures cannot compete with English, for example, as the numbers of English speakers are significantly higher. In a world of globalization, the need for a common language, or lingua franca, is important for numerous cultures to
For this summary I watched a video called Voices of the World: The Extinction of Language and Linguistic Diversity. The video starts off with how people believe that there are about 6, 000 languages. David Crystal talks about how with all these different languages half of them are endangered of becoming extinct. Each different language offers a different point of view of the world and culture. He said that if different languages are lost then “we lose the meaning what is it to be human.”
In this day and age, and with every passing day, there are numerous languages succumbing to extinction, falling into disuse and anonymity; being forever lost to the winds of time. But as they say, "Every cloud has its silver lining," the silver lining in this case is the increase and rise in awareness and efforts being undertaken to preserve, revitalize, and revive these languages that are not yet lost to us. Something that is revitalized is defined as "being given new life or vigor to," and should we abide by this definition, it is pleasing to see that numerous fit in this criterion; the criteria of being revitalized. This is a report on the Navajo language. This report will explore how the Navajo language, once a prosperous language with thousands of speakers fell into decline and the efforts that are currently being undertaken to revitalize the language. The language is spoken by the Navajo tribe a tribe of approximately 300,048 people, 170,000+ of whom speak Navajo, who are located in the Northeastern part of Arizona, the Northwestern part of New Mexico, and the Southeastern part Utah, all of whom are located in the USA. The years covered span from the decline of the language in the 1850's to our current time. The scope of the enquiry will range from the history of the Navajo, to the decline of the language, the efforts undertaken to revitalize the language, and its current usage. The thesis of this report is that an endangered language can be revitalized. The conclusion will therefore be that yes, an endangered language, one such as Navajo can be revitalized.
linguistics -- to trace the origins and development of Indian languages and the genealogy of Indian language families; anthropology -- to identify shared cultural elements and cultural distinctions between Indian peoples; and even "conventional" techniques of history -- e.g., close interpretation of such histo...
"Preserving Native American Languages." The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
• AW’s work is deeply rooted in oral tradition; in the passing on of stories from generation to generation in the language of the people. To AW the language had a great importance. She uses the “Slave language”, which by others is seen as “not correct language”, but this is because of the effect she wants the reader to understand.
Silko, Leslie Marmon. “Language and Literature from a Pueblo Indian Perspective.” 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology. Ed. Samuel Cohen. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004. 346-357. Print.
Another difficulty cultures deal with is language and the way people speak. In some cases, people struggle to belong by making changes in the way they speak the English language just to be assimilated. They attempt to use words and letters, as well as body language that fit in the norm; all in an attempt to denounce their original intonation and style of pronunciation. One ...
Through colonization native languages begins to diminish amongst the world around them. Gwen Westerman writing in Root Words demonstrates the effect of colonization on language, “Our language/is like those prairie grasses/surviving the fires/of missionaries and their gods/floods of English words/drought, growing/in unexpected places as if it had never been gone/Makoce Kin etanhan/ enhipi. Ikce/ wicasta tehikapi/ Dakota iapi teunjihijdapi” (Gwen Westerman). On the surface of the prairie grass the native language may seem as though it has disappeared through years of endless colonization.
Taylor, Heather. Polari: A Sociohistorical Study of the Life and Decline of a Secret Language. 2007. Web. 9 Nov. 2013. .
A lingua franca is a common language that ties speakers of other native languages together. Mandarin works as this lingua franca in the way that it ties people together from countries such as China, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, and Taiwan together, even though their home countries may have different languages. This common standard language allows businesses across these countries to communicate easily. As this lingua franca, Mandarin is growing more as a second-language. The indigenous languages of these variously cultured people still remain intact and in use, and the standard language just allows them to communicate amongst each
The selected chapter Words and Culture is written by Ronald Wardhaugh in his book An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. This chapter focuses on the interreationship between language and culture. The author first introduces the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, which claims that language has strong influence on culture. He then discusses the study of kinship terms, (folk) taxonomies, color terms, prototypes, and taboo and euphrmisms used in different cultures to furthur support the hypothesis.
Today, the Indigenous people of Australia speak less than 20 languages. The exact number of Indigenous languages throughout the 60,000 years they are said to of inhabit Australia is unknown, but it was thought when the colonists arrived, there were over 250 different languages. In more recent times, 100 of these languages have become unspoken, and the rest are all highly endangered. Most of these languages are not considered as ‘dead’ or ‘extinct’, even though they no longer have any living speakers. These languages are better referred to as ‘sleeping’ or ‘dormant’ languages in Aboriginal societies.
Since the beginning of human interaction, culture was a driving force with respect to language. Culture completely shapes the how and what people say to each other. Additionally, culture’s influence on language has been so powerful, that the more dominant a culture becomes the more the language of that culture will permeate other cultures that it has interaction with and subsequently comes to dominate the language of neighboring cultures. Some may even argue that language is a sub-culture of culture itself and yet others argue that language is simply a product or manifestation of a particular culture. Irrespective of the position that one may assume in this age old debate the overriding theme is culture significantly impacts language and in-turn, culture drives consequences of social institutions. I will address language as a social institution and its consequences in a separate paper.
English spreads widely in each countries, no matter the area of region or information transfer, English becomes an important position in global language. As the specification of a global language, it essentially refers to a language that learned and spoken internationally, so English can be the most out-standing. According to the number of English-speaking calculations, English is the official language used by most countries, English is the most widely used second language in the world, and the percentage of web pages with English content is estimated to be over 50% (Crystal, 2003). Meanwhile, the history and usefulness cause English to be a global language, and they mainly influence to spread English faster in China and to bring convenience
In order to visualize the “global” as an adjective in the collocation “global language”, a study has shown the numbers of people speaking the language. According to them, there are about 6000 languages in the world and not surprisingly English is at the top of the list of most dominant. In the world there are 375 million first-language speakers, approximately the same number of second-language speakers and about 750 million foreign-language speakers (David Graddol, The Future of English? A Guide to Forecasting the Popularity of the English Language in the 21st Century. British Council, 1997). According to magazine Economist, more than one billion people speak some form of English. These numbers could make people think that English is really conquering the world which can be both positive and negative.