Language influences the view of the world, embodies a person’s essential for survival to communicate with people, interpret ideas, and have perspective about cultural and traditional knowledge. However, Language extinction is a huge element in every day’s life. Because language extinction also means the culture, religion, social values, and its history is slowly getting loss at the same time. There are many factors to language extinction due to the population, educational, and economic principles. Melanesian is one of the rapid extinction of the world's languages that are endangered before they disappear completely.
Melanesia is one of three major cultural areas in the Pacific Ocean. Melanesia itself is part of a larger culture area called Oceania that includes Melanesia, Polynesia, Micronesia. The native populations of Melanesians are described as dark-skinned with frizzy hair ("Endangered Languages"). They are near Australia and they lie in a semicircle off the northeast coast of that continent (“Wikipeadia”). Within the region the countries of Melanesia are Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Santa Cruz, and New Caledonia. People mistakenly think that Melanesian languages are classified under the Polynesia languages ("Lost Language, Lost Culture"). Fiji is part of Melanesia; who has migrated from Vanuatu and some of the smaller outer islands are populated by Polynesians around Melanesia, and others by small groups of Micronesians (“Wikipeadia”). The nearest country to Fiji is Tonga, which is part of the Polynesian island; thus, making people mistakenly think that Melanesia is part of the Polynesian area. But originally, Melanesian people speak Fijian, Motu, and Yabim; which is part of the Papuan languages. Most...
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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.”
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...to identity with at least one of the countries predominate languages, English or French, dictated the degree in which they could participate in Canadian life. According to the Commission, this participation was real under two conditions: “that both societies, the French-speaking as well as the English-speaking, accept[ed] newcomers much more rapidly than they have done in the past; and that the two societies willingly allow other groups to preserve and enrich, if they so desire, the cultural values they prize[d]” (RCBB Book 1 xxv). It creates an interesting take on the acceptance of those “othered” groups, as change was necessary not only on the part of the minorities but also from Canada’s French and English-speakers. The Commissions work remains focused on language and culture, more so than ethnicity amongst a bilingual, bicultural and “othered” Canadian society.
The Polynesian peoples have a lifestyle quite different than that of any other culture, as living on an island requires a level of flexible adaptability in order to cope with such a different, sometimes difficult environment. We see the way diverse cultures build their lives around their circumstances and how they respect them in their cultural myths and stories. The Polynesian legends emphasize the physical environment that they live in. They are quite different than any other region in the world, but the beauty and individuality of the Polynesian culture is prominent as seen in their mythology.
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Canada’s own identity starts with our remarkable sense of culture and customs. For the native peoples, the Canadian identity stretches thousands of years into the search of struggles to retain elements of their ancient culture. From a colonial perspective, the traditions which surface in Canadian culture seem to be born of an earlier time, of different origins and places, of old-fashioned rituals, and customs. Unlike the United States, its senior neighbor, Canada’s aged-like identity is more reserved and skillful, unwilling to commit it self to anything specific. Within each region of Canada-
Although this may be an easy exit to avoid the issue, endangered languages are much more than they seem on the surface. At a linguist’s perspective, endangered languages must be saved because they are vital for future understandings of human interaction and thought. Given the average person doesn’t acquire the same amount of information on language as a linguist does, then the average person should be informed that endangered languages must be saved. Endangered languages are storage houses of knowledge providing a plethora of insight on the world and ways to perceive different things. Languages carry so much more than just words to communicate with as they diversify our world and offer different views to think in. Language is what makes us who we are and enhances the human mind to think differently and conceptually from
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Language is one of the most basic necessities for human interactions in a society. Ng and Bradac (1993) stated that, “some of the most remarkable human tools are the specific languages that particular groups of human have developed and adapted for use in their daily lives” (p.1). Without language, socialization between individuals in society would be highly difficult; which would possibly result in a lack of social solidarity that ties people together. From social and academic institutions (family and school), we were taught to use the most favorable language to survive in society. Brunei Darussalam centers on the Malay and English language. Depending on the surrounding and how Bruneians were raised, the use of language may differ for different individuals. In this essay, I’ll be talking about the language that my family and I have acquired. I will also talk about the existence of bilingualism in my family and the use of different languages during travelling.
In Melchers he calls Tok Pisin a pidgin. This shows that there is a very thin line between creole and pidgin. Siegel writes ‘It is debatable, however, whether Tok Pisin (and Melanesian Pidgin as a whole) can be called a creole. Those who call it a creole emphasize the fact that it has thousands of native speakers and has the functions and grammatical features found in typical creoles. Those who say it is still a pidgin point out that more than 90%of its speakers have a different native language.)’ this shows that there is still debate over the status of Tok Pisin as a
Language is the most powerful means of transmitting culture to the next generation. Each person speaks, communicates and thinks within the limits of a particular language. As Papua
Tagalog is ones of the many dialects derived from the Malay language family and belongs to the Malayan branch of the great Malayo-Polynesian linguistic family. The Malay language is not specifically a language of any nation, but of communities spread throughout the Pacific islands such as Sumara, Sunda, Java, Bornea, Flores, Timor, and the Philippines. In the early sixteenth century Portuguese explorer, Ferdinand Magellan, and his Malay interpreter both noticed how the interpreter could easily be understood from one island to the next, indicating that there was a similarity between the different dialects of the Malay language.