Key Issue 4:

Why Do People Preserve Local Languages?

Preserving Language Diversity

Thousands of languages are extinctExtinct Languages: once in use, but no

longer spoken or read in daily activities by anyone in the world

Endangered Languages

Example: Gothic

Once widely spoken in Eastern & Northern Europe in the 3rd century A.D.

East Germanic groupLast speakers of Gothic Why did Gothic die?

Invasion of the Germanic Tribes

Preserving Languages

European Bureau for Lesser used Languages

Nonetheless, experts estimate that hundreds of languages will become extinct in the 21st century.

Hebrew: Reviving Extinct Languages

Hebrew is a rare case of an extinct language that has been revived.

Most of the Bible’s Old Testament was written in Hebrew

It diminished in use in the 4th century B.C.

At the time of Jesus, most people spoke Aramaic

Hebrew Continued…

Israel was established in 1948 and Hebrew was chosen (along with Arabic) as an official language

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda

Celtic: Preserving Endangered Languages

This was the major language spoken in the British Isles before the Germanic tribes came.

Today, Celtic survives only in remoter parts of Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and the Brittany peninsula of France.

Celtic Continued…

Celtic Language Groups:Goidelic (Gaelic) Group—Irish & Scottish

Gaelic Brythonic Group—Welsh

Why did Celtic decline? Revival of Celtic

Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (Welsh Language Society)

Celtic Sights & Sounds

Here is the companion website to the National Geographic article:

http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0603/sights_n_sounds/index.html

Multilingual States

BelgiumSouthern Belgians speak French

(Walloons live in Wallonia)Northern Belgians speak Flemish

(Flemings live in Flanders) Brussels is located in Flanders, but is

officially bilingual

Belgium Continued…

Multilingual States Continued…

SwitzerlandSwitzerland peacefully coexists with

multiple languages. 4 official languages: German (65%),

French (18%), Italian (10%), & Romansh (1%).

Switzerland Continued…

Isolated Languages

BasqueBasque is the only language currently

spoken in Europe that survives from the period before the arrival of Indo-European speakers.

Spoken by 600,000 people n the Pyrenees Mountains.

Isolated Languages Continued…

IcelandicIcelandic is related to other languages

(Germanic branch), but it has changed less than any other language in the Germanic branch.

Iceland’s history explains this…

Global Dominance of English

Lingua Franca: language used for international communication.

Pidgin Language: a simplified form of a lingua franca

English Stats:90% of E.U. students learn English500 million people speak English fluently as

a second languageWhy do students want to learn English?

Expansion Diffusion of English

English is diffusion in a snowballing process (expansion!)

English is dynamic Recent changes in English have come

up from common usage, rather than being directed down from the elite

Expansion of English Continued…

Ebonics Slavery and language Segregation Recognized dialect with

distinct rules

Appalachian Dialect Distinctive dialect “Bidialectic” Use of both of these

dialects is controversial

Expansion Diffusion of English Continued…

English words have become increasingly integrated into other languages

Japanese wordsBeisiboru NaifuSutoroberi kekiHanbaga Bigu Macu

Expansion Diffusion of English Continued…

Franglais Language is a source of national pride in France The French do not like the dominance of English Quebec

Spanglish Spanglish is an integration of English with Spanish,

rather than the mere borrowing of words Spanglish is regarded as an enriching of both

languages

Denglish

So…

Why do people preserve local languages?