Lost for words---The languages of minority are in danger
As for the indigenous American Navajo, who live in the four states of south-west America, their native language Navajo is disappearing. Most of Navajo speakers are the middle-age or elder. Although students are learning the language, classes run in English. Road sign, illustration of goods in supermarket and newspapers are all written in English. Not surprisingly, linguists doubt whether the language will be spoken in 100 years.
Navajo will never be alone. Half of the 6800 languages may disappear from the world in the next two generations --- that's one language disappears in ten days. Never before the diversity of language shrink at such a pace in the planet. "Now, what we are facing will be three or four dominant languages in the world.", Marl Pagel said, the evolutionary biologist at the Reading University,"It's a mass exctinction, and it is hard to be certain whether we can refund form the loss of language extinction."
Isolation breeds the diversity of language, so the world is peppered with the languages spoke by only a few people. Only 250 languages have more 1 million speakers, and at least 3000 languages have less than 2500 speakers. However, it's not necessarily that those languages extinct. Although there are 150 thousand speakers of Navajo, it is put in the endangered list. The standard to judge whether a language is in danger is not determined by the number of speakers but how old they are. If the language is spoken by children, it is relatively safe. MIcheal Krauss, the director of Alassk linguistic center in Firebanks, argues that those languages really endangered are those only spoken by the elder.
But why do people refuse to speak their parents' language?
All things start in the crisis of confidence. Nicholas Ostler, the member of British's endangered language fundation in Bath, says that, when a small community notices a bigger.wealthier society, its members will lose confidence to their own culture. However, Salikoko Mufwene, who chairs the linguistic department in Chicaco University, argues that, the deadliest weapon is not government policy, but the trend to be economic globalization. He said, "the Indian people don't lose confidence for their language, but they have to adapt to the social-economic pressure. If English is used in most commercial activities, they have to speak English." Nevertheless, are languages really worth saving?
At least, it's a loss for the study of language and its evolution, because the study is based on the comparison between the current and the past of languages. When an unwritten language disappears, it is lost fo science.
Language is intimately related with culture, so it is difficult to save one without another. " If a person shifts Navajo to English, he must lose something. ", Mufwene said. Pagel also remarks that,"The loss of language diversity deprives us the different ways of looking at the world." Increasing evidences indicate that learning a language can make our brains different physically. "For instance, your brain is different from those people who speak French.", Pagel said, and it will influence our thoughts and perceptions. "The various patterns and connections we made among different conceptions are most likely to result from the linguistic habits of our community."
So despite linguists try their best, many languages will still disappear in the next century. However, a growing interest in cultural identity may prevent the worst end from coming true. "The key of keeping language diversity is to make people learn their ancestral language while they adapt to the dominant languages.", Doug Whalen said, the president of Newhaii Endangered Language Fund. " Most of these languages will vanish without the large coverage of bilingualism.", he thought. In New Zealand, classes for children have slowed the decline of Maori and restrike the interest for the language. In Hawaii, a similar method produces 8000 speakers of Polysinian in the past few years. In California, "apprentice" program revives several indigenous languages. "Apprentice" volunteers make a group with the last speaker of some Indian languages and learn traditional skills such as making busket, communicating in Indian language during the process. After the train of 300 hours people can speak so fluently that they can transmit the language to their children. But Mufwene point out that avoiding language disappearance is not the same with giving it a new life by using it every day, "it's more like saving fruits in the jar."
However, saving languages can surely survive them from the dead line. Some cases prove that some languages are saved by written recordings, and children revive them. Of course, written recording is the key point. Therefore, the possibility of reviving language leads many people of endangered languages to develop a written system that never exists as before.