Module VII·Article II·~1 min read
Language and Identity: Language Death and Language Policy
Translation, Intercultural Communication, and Loss in Translation
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Languages Die
Today there are about 7,000 languages in the world. By the end of the 21st century, 50–90% of them will disappear — according to most estimates. Every two weeks, one language dies: the last speaker passes away, taking with them a unique way of seeing the world.
Why is this important? Daniel Everett and the Pirahã language (Amazonian): Pirahã has no recursion (embedded clauses), has no numerals except “few-many”, has no concepts of past and future in our sense. This language challenges Chomsky’s “universal grammar” and demonstrates an alternative way of organizing experience.
The disappearance of a language is the disappearance of ecological knowledge, medical practices, narrative traditions, conceptual worlds. Linguists compare this to the extinction of biological species: an irretrievable loss of diversity.
Language Policy and the Struggle for Identity
The Welsh language in the United Kingdom is an excellent example of successful revitalization: from 70,000 speakers in the 1970s to 900,000 today. Mandatory education in Welsh, Welsh television, government documents in both languages. This is a political decision.
Irish — less successful: despite its constitutional status as the “first language”, in reality it is used by fewer than 100,000. Mandatory instruction in school created speakers who use the language only for exams.
Hebrew is the most radical example of revitalization: a language used only for religious texts became a spoken language for millions in 50 years. This is an unprecedented linguistic project, carried out as part of a nationalist movement.
Reflection question: Are there “dying languages” in your field — professional concepts, ways of thinking, which are being displaced by “more efficient” ones, but something is lost?
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