Language Loss
Many years ago the
different Empires’ consolidation took place; among these there were two big Empires
that spread their legacy around the world. The Spanish Empire took over
territories and populations which inhabited the subcontinent known as South
America, whereas the British Empire (European continent) strategically
conquered many places in Africa, Asia and even North America, today known as
the United States.
Clearly the winners by making these emancipatory trips
were the Empires previously mentioned, and if so, how is that in some places
people barely resisted their arrival? Well, they have been projecting an
imaginary reality to aborigines, stating that this colonization was and is
necessary for them, and assuring them that they will join the peaceful world we
live in and will be fairly treated. Anyway I don’t think they believe in those
words anymore.
Despite I already
knew a little of these events I had never wonder about the situation they face
nowadays.
There is a theory
that remains the existence of six thousand spoken languages but half of
the world's known languages are expected to die within this century mainly
because some of these languages have just a single living speaker or they are spoken
only by elders and not learned by children. As an example we
can consider the case
of Rapa Nui language, they were not used to teach their children the native
language at school but this has been changing through the years. American and African countries went through
this situation but they realized how important it was to keep their roots alive.
Talking about Chile, only four out of the eight natives
languages are spoken by less than one third of the adult population.
On twenty-ninth February we celebrate the international day of the mother
tongue. But most of us do not know about it. The government has implemented
certain recovery and integration programs but is this enough? Do they really
want to comply with what native people are asking, which are more opportunities
and above all never forget where we come from?
“Globalization: another factor that contributes to cultural diversity
loss”
Here I post a video where a specialist mentions a really important possibly consequence: the loss of diversity, and some quotes that in my opinion express deep reflections, certainly worth it to hear and read.
“Language loss has a
profound impact on indigenous and minority communities and revitalization and
maintenance efforts by concerned people can make a big difference in the way
the community values not only its language but, even more, its entire culture.
Preservation [...] is what
we do to berries in jam jars and salmon in cans. [...] Books and recordings can
preserve languages, but only people and communities can keep them alive.” --
Nora Marks Dauenhauer and Richard Dauenhauer, Tlingit [Alaska] oral historians.
(In Lord 1996: 68).
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