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Saving endangered languages | ||
Tags: Endangered Language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| sunny Groupie United States Joined 6057 days ago 98 posts - 128 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian, Welsh, French | Message 1 of 19 18 May 2010 at 3:38pm | IP Logged |
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Is there a way that we(in general) as individuals can assist in the preservation of endangered languages?
I myself would like to assist in the endeavors within the different Native American tribes, but I have no idea what to do, other than give money(of which I have very little) to the National Geographic Enduring Voices project. Also as a non-native, I fear that anything I might endeavor to do would be seen as both interfering and detrimental to the culture. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Luso Hexaglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 5870 days ago 819 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, French, EnglishC2, GermanB1, Italian, Spanish Studies: Sanskrit, Arabic (classical) | Message 2 of 19 18 May 2010 at 4:32pm | IP Logged |
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Even although I don't have a technical/scientific/prepared answer to give to you (sorry...), I'll nevertheless give you a suggestion.
If you do have the contacts of the institutions behind those preservation initiatives, why don't you volunteer to: a) learn the language (satisfying on its own), and b) work towards its preservation (by recording it, writing it, etc.) ? This could be harder than you (or I) think, but it could also be very rewarding. Just a suggestion (I don't know whether it's even doable...). Edited by Luso on 18 May 2010 at 4:33pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| anamsc Triglot Senior Member Andorra Joined 6012 days ago 296 posts - 382 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Catalan Studies: Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Written), French | Message 3 of 19 18 May 2010 at 5:41pm | IP Logged |
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Some things you can do:
-Contact your local university's linguistics department and see if there is anybody working with an endangered language; offer your time to help them. -Identify a specific language that you want to work with, and contact that group to see whether you can help, as well as doing research on what has already been written about the language. There is a huge amount of steps that go into revitalizing a language --documentation, development of didactic materials, development of entertainment (books, magazines, dubbed shows, etc.), government/public policy, etc. You should identify your areas of interest/expertise and figure out how that can be used to aid in revitalization. A word of caution: if you are worried about being an interference, I would avoid learning the language in the beginning (as some --very few-- people would not be pleased about that). Also, keep in mind that at the moment, some groups do not want their language to be revitalized; in that case, the most you can do it record their language as well as possible for future generations that may want that. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Spanky Senior Member Canada Joined 5765 days ago 1021 posts - 1714 votes Studies: French | Message 4 of 19 18 May 2010 at 11:13pm | IP Logged |
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[QUOTE=sunny] Is there a way that we(in general) as individuals can assist in the preservation of endangered languages?
QUOTE] An admirable but likely frustrating goal. Preservation may entail two very different pursuits: 1. recognizing that for whatever socio/economic/politcal/life reasons that a particular language is endangered or on the road to extinction, one might look to preserve as much of the language as possible while there still exist native speakers of the language. Linguistic departments of universities might do this, and possibly more likely, anthropology departments may have projects of this sort underway, involving as much audio recording as possible of native speakers use of the language. I do not know whether there would be volunteer opportunities to assist in the field work involved in something like this. My guess would be no, but it never hurts to enquire if you had the interest and ability to get out into the relevant communities. 2. taking steps to encourage the survival of the language itself, a tremendously bigger project, and one that is unlikely in my view absent government involvement and very significant target community involvement. There has to be the will within the target language community to preserve the language (this cannot be imposed by outsiders), and there likely needs to be external governmental support to counterbalance whatever other factors may have been at play in that language decline. In Canada, for example, there are a ton of aboriginal languages literally on the verge of complete extinction, as most of the languages are no longer being taken up by the young, who look instead to the more pervasive English and French. There has been increasingly a governmental push to encourage quite a number of aboriginal languages, through legislation (territorial and provincial official language status) and more importantly through $$ (funding of community-based language programmes, subsidizing aboriginal language learning opportunities in universities and community colleges, funding publications in aboriginal languages and perhaps most importantly of all teaching of the language to the young kids at the elementary school level and beyond). Putting aside the issue of whether the momentum of a dying language should be opposed and whether it can be halted or even reversed, what can an individual (outside a target community) do? Become aware of and support government initiatives of this sort. Edited by Spanky on 18 May 2010 at 11:15pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| pohaku Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5460 days ago 192 posts - 367 votes Speaks: English*, Persian Studies: Arabic (classical), French, German, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 5 of 19 19 May 2010 at 2:49am | IP Logged |
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I will offer a few ideas based on my experiences in rare plant conservation and restoration, and as a witness to attempts at saving extremely rare fauna.
1. Since resources are not infinite, hard choices will have to be made about what to try and save and what to give up on. 2. The best thing to do--or at least a very good thing--is to preserve habitats for truly viable entities--languages in this case. Otherwise, you wind up with what are essentially museum pieces or hothouse plants which do not and cannot live in nature. Look around you. What can you do wherever you live to help preserve the diversity of languages in your community and keep the linguistic habitat strong? 3. It can be extremely costly to try and bring a species--or language--back from the brink, and it is often unsuccessful. 4. Charismatic megafauna such as pandas, gorillas, and blue whales suck up resources disproportionately because they are perceived as cute or magnificent or human-like. For every species like that, there are thousands of other animals and plants that are just as endangered, but which receive little attention or sympathy. Nevertheless, a healthy ecosystem needs all those species. I'm not sure how this fits in with languages, but I'm pretty sure it's relevant. 5. It is probably better for people who want to work on these issues to work near home or in areas (subject areas or geographical areas) where they have some expertise. These are long-haul efforts, typically spearheaded by small groups of insanely dedicated people. If you want to be one of those people, hunker down for many years of activity. The effort has to become a significant portion of your life. What can you do wherever you live to help preserve a diversity of languages in your community? E.g., I recently read about the thousands of isolated elders in New York City who are some of the last speakers of their languages--and have no one to talk to. Someone could jump into that situation and make a difference, maybe by connecting elders to one another, or by doing oral histories, or whatever. It's just an example. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Smart Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5148 days ago 352 posts - 398 votes Speaks: Spanish, English*, Latin, French Studies: German | Message 6 of 19 19 May 2010 at 6:28am | IP Logged |
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I also want to help support the endangered languages and will gladly learn Native American languages.
Was not aware of the NatGeo project, thanks ! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 5820 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 7 of 19 19 May 2010 at 11:22am | IP Logged |
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One thing that anyone can do (for a language that has a written system) is type up old books on computer to make them more widely available via the internet.
4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| sunny Groupie United States Joined 6057 days ago 98 posts - 128 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian, Welsh, French | Message 8 of 19 19 May 2010 at 3:37pm | IP Logged |
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My personal interest (in which i don't try to save the entire planet but just a tiny portion) is the Lakota language of the Lakota people. They already seem to be doing a lot, but with only 6000 speakers as of the last census, they have a tough road. They are teaching it to the children in the reservation schools though. And when one looks at the resurgence of Welsh due in great part to teaching to the children, this seems like they are on the right path.
Just how does one support such a venture? An idea came to me this morning, perhaps in the way of making more materials for reading available in the language, such as children's books. I will start working toward my translation certificates for German and Russian in the fall, perhaps I can get the department interested in this kind of project. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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