Worldwide, a Language Dies Every Two Weeks

This article touches on a topic that I talked about in an earlier blog. I find it interesting that we have this recurring debate about languages and determining whether or not it is beneficial, if not necessary, to preserve dying languages. The more I read about the topic, the more perspectives I learn about that provide interesting dynamics to the topic.

One interesting point was that languages not only contain stories and history, but also have the ability to describe things like medicinal uses for plants. I never gave much consideration to this dynamic, and now that I take time to think about it, I find it extremely interesting and changing my perspective on the issue to be more sensitive to the grey areas of the topic.

One other thing they talked about are the "hotspots" for a dying language. These “hotspot” areas include Northern Australia, Central South America, Eastern Siberia and parts of the United States and Canada. The languages in question seem to come from minority groups, and I was somewhat surprised by our last discussion and also in this article how some languages have three or fewer speakers. Part of me just wonders how much we are losing from all of these languages. For me, when considering programming languages, the syntax (or words) are irrelevant, but rather how easy it is to create expressions and develop functionality are key. When considering other languages, it's hard for me to develop a cohesive understanding and strong position one way or the other. As of right now, the least we should do is catalog as much of the dying languages as we can, and analyze them for their content if they die out. If not, have people learn the language and learn as much as possible about the culture from the speakers.

Original Article: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/2007-11-06-voa1.cfm