Lost Languages

[CajunCenturion]

In defence of 'lost' languages

Good Luck
--------------
To get the most from your Tek-Tips experience, please read FAQ181-2886
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[MakeItSo]

I consider this a normal effect of evolution. Language is a means of communication. In the case of the three remaining "Mati Ke" speakers:

"...traditional culture has forbidden him from speaking to [his sister] since puberty"

This language definitely does not serve as a communication means anymore, does it? It dies out due to natural selection.

Think of the Inuit: They have 200 (?) words for snow, depending on temperature, flake size, consistency a.s.o.
What if one day the polar ice caps melt away? Will this destroy their language?
If so: this would just be normal evolution, since you don't need 200 different words for something that does not exist anymore...

One should fight the loss of languages, if this loss is caused by pure laziness.
But languages like Mati Ke or the Gomera whistling language will sooner or later die out, because their initiates die out.



[blue]An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. - "Mahatma" Mohandas K. Gandhi[/blue]

 

[trollacious]

The hoax of Innuit words for snow:

http://www.mendosa.com/snow.html

In fact, "Contrary to popular belief, the Eskimos do not have more words for snow than do speakers of English," according to linguist Steven Pinker in his book The Language Instinct. "Counting generously, experts can come up with about a dozen."

Lee

 

[sleipnir214]

Here's something a little more scholarly on the Inuit/snow question:

http://www.newsandevents.utoronto.ca/bios/askus3.htm

This link,

http://www.uwnews.org/article.asp?articleID=7171

, will take you to the original page for the article MakeItSo posted above. Audio files of some examples of the language are available.



I agree with MakeItSo. Cultural taboos set up Mati Ke for inevitable extinction.

If a language dies off of natural causes, I don't think I can get too upset. But there was a concerted effort in the U.S. in the early 20th century to kill off languages. My Cajun wife's grandmother and the grandmother's twin sister told me horror stories from kindergarten where kids who had spoken nothing but Cajun French were required to speak only English in school. But the language was not taught in the school -- you just had to osmote it, I guess. My granmother-in-law's twin was required to spend a day in school wearing urine-wet clothes because she didn't know how to ask for permission to use the toilet in English and eventually pissed herself.

But some groups are making inroads. There is a Blackfoot renaissance going on, for example.


Want the best answers? Ask the best questions!

TANSTAAFL!!