There are around 7,000 languages spoken in the world, but that number is shrinking. Unesco estimates that half could disappear by the end of the century. So how are languages lost, and what does that mean for the people who speak them?
There are around 7,000 languages spoken in the world, but that number is shrinking. Unesco estimates that half could disappear by the end of the century. So how are languages lost, and what does that mean for the people who speak them?
I don’t get why people are up in arms over lost languages or lost cultures, unless of course if it’s due to genocide.
But USA was inhabited by people from alol over the world, but it’s damned practical that they almost all speak English.
Having as many languages as we have is a mess, and speaking the same language is a clear advantage for everybody.
Regarding culture, people don’t lose their culture in general, they adopt other cultures over time.
Just like people have evolved biologically over time, so do we also evolve culturally, but the cultural evolution is much much faster.
And it’s fucking great that cultures evolve, because that’s the way to get rid of religion and other traits of our cultures that are detrimental to in general.
I can’t believe I just read this…and I can’t believe so many people upvoted this chauvinistic take on language.
You should know that I come from a country of only 6 million people, so it’s definitely not because I’m chauvinistic about my own first language. So calling it that is pretty stupid.
But on the contrary because I know first hand the many problems of coming from a small language.
Obviously in my country most people speak more languages than our native language, because you frigging have to, if you want to know anything, or just watch movie. Or have cultural exchanges outside our own country.
The romanticizing of small languages is idiotic.
What is your argument for wanting people to not have the privilege of belonging to a bigger language group?
Let me guess, you don’t speak natively one of your country’s minority languages. But you have a grudge you have to live with those pesky insignificant dialects. You are not special. People like you are a dime a dozen in countries with linguistic minorities.
You are defending the disappearance of languages with fewer speakers, languages you assume as less important because you are a chauvinist. You’re not advocating the learning of other languages as L2, which would be a good thing. Lingua francas are a good thing. Pressuring minorities to reject their own native language is just chauvinistic and racist/xenophobic, no matter how hard you try to defend it as simple pragmatism (which is always just an excuse).
We don’t have the slightest common ground here. Our values are much different do there’s no point in discussing this with you. I’ve known lots of people like you. The country next to mine is filled with such people. My own smaller country was the only one lucky enough to stay independent and I’ve heard speeches like yours way too many times.
WTF?! Are you on meth or something?
I NEVER argued for that, I explicitly in my first post stated that that is immoral, although my example was genocide, the meaning is the same.
Again with the boxing people into some sort of category with no basis.
Funny how you don’t present a single argument, but rely exclusively on personal insults?
Which it often is, as I’m sure you know. We are in an awful situation for Indigenous languages.
These are the same thing. People don’t just lose their culture and become cultureless. They lose their culture as they adopt another culture, but this process is largely driven by colonialism.
“Evolve”? Do you think European culture is superior to Indigenous cultures? We are destroying the planet in record time, and you are talking about “cultural evolution”? This is the language of 19th century racists who were blind to the nuances of culture. Different cultures are different ways of being in the world, each with its own pros and cons.
Unfortunately, the cultures that have replaced Indigenous cultures around the world have largely been bigoted Christian cultures. Language loss is not caused by cultures becoming healthier – it is caused by unhealthy cultures killing other cultures.
I’m a skeptic on this as well but wow you completely dismissed the entire question of loss of cultural diversity and that is a little too far for me. I think you may also be ignoring that humans are built to speak 3-4 languages without strain, and so having just one is unnecessary, and for people to have alternates is not necessarily harmful.
For any pair of languages there are plenty of subjects where one is clearly inferior to another.
That’s why they have evolved in the first place.
Religion is biological, not cultural. The cultural part associated with it being destroyed doesn’t change human nature.
And leads to uglier religions.
A language and a piece of knowledge are in symbiosis, you can’t just “translate” everything without losing half the meaning.
If your only language is English, then please don’t make statements like this.
I speak 3 languages.
Then it’s even harder to justify.
I do not need to justify myself to you, you are the one who needs to justify your backwards view to me.
And you probably couldn’t answer why, which is why you made a response with absolutely no substance containing no argument.
So I ask again, what is your argument for wanting people to not have the privilege of belonging to a bigger language group?
Since you are putting statements into my mouth, you can invent arguments the same way, do that, I don’t have time
Which languages, out of interest?
Danish, English, German, and also Swedish and Norwegian because they are close to Danish, so I don’t really count those.
Gaeilge (Irish) is barely spoken because of Britian banning it, if people give up on speaking it it means a massive loss of an important piece of Irish culture.
There’s a saying: tír gan teanga, tír gan anam, meaning a country without a language is a country without a soul. A native language to a country can be an integral part of its culture.
It makes sense to speak english or since its effectively the linga franca, but people can know more than one language.
Yes language can be part of national and cultural identity, and i agree oppressing it is absolutely 100% wrong, it’s actually also considered genocide to do so, exactly because it erases a culture against the will of the people who ascribe to it. And I specifically stated that of course genocide isn’t acceptable.
But in a situation where different cultures integrate, like in USA, people from different backgrounds get married and have children.
So if a Polish and a Spanish person for instance fall in love, it’s a huge advantage that they have a common language, and when they raise their children it would be obvious to use that. They probably keep many elements from their old culture, but at the same time adopt new things from other cultures.
This way over generations this new American culture which consist of elements from many cultures arises, and elements of the old cultures disappear.
As I see it, this has created one of the worlds richest cultures in USA in record time. And for by far the most Americans I bet this is a net gain, compared to the singular culture they were originally limited to.
In my country we have also seen an influx of immigrants, mostly since the 60’s. And it’s very obvious to me that this has enriched our culture tremendously. Especially on food.
So modern day danish culture has changed a lot since the 70’s, and that change is enrichment IMO, and hopefully to the immigrants too. But Muslim men can’t have multiple wives here, because that’s illegal. Is that cultural oppression?
Only if your understanding of human language is that it is simply a tool for life, not an expression of life or intelligence itself.
No you are catastrophically wrong, but most people agree with you all the same and damn us all for that.
When we all speak exactly the same language, that will be by definition the moment we have reached a point of no return in the destruction of our own species.
I disagree, if we use English as an example, there are clear differences between the English spoken in NY and Texas even though both are within USA, and there are differences between England and Scotland, these differences are even within the same country. The advantage is that the understanding of a concept framed in one of these regions, can spread more easily across all English language regions.
Which is probably a major reason English is one of the richest languages we have. On the downside it’s also a mess, but it enables you and I to communicate, while a 100 years ago there would be near zero chance I would understand any English at all!
So you can’t deny the very clear advantage of being able to communicate and share ideas.
Of course any language is an expression of life intelligence and defining abstract ideas. It’s not just an expression of it, but also how we think. Language is a tool to both form and express our thoughts.
So what exactly is your point? Because I don’t get it from your other post either.
It’s not the richest language (en), but it likely the most flexible.
I know this is how you think, this is the rigid terms in which computer programmers, engineers and people bound up in totalitarian thinking in some form or another ALWAYS frame things and honestly I understand, it is very similar to how to very effectively tackle a technical problem… but this is not a technical problem this is a question of life.
You will never come up with the concept or learn how to explain it to people without the diversity, intelligence, creativity and new ideas that a diversity of languages and really everything brings to the table in the first place and the person you are speaking to won’t be intelligent enough to understand in a meaningful way either. You are looking at the inefficiencies of diversity and dismissing the stability, growth and innovation it brings in a way that worries me because I see the ideology everywhere.
How is you argument fundamentally different than just rephrasing a totalitarian argument in terms of language, “It would be better and more efficient if we only had ONE LANGUAGE, ONE GOVERNMENT, ONE WAY”. No it wouldn’t, it would be efficient at conveying simplistic, empty instructions across an utterly broken populace unable to think for themselves in any meaningful way which is in my opinion quite a distasteful form of efficiency.
You have just reframed the concept, role and artistry of language in a way where you have disguised how threatening a loss of diversity in it will be towards pushing things into collapse, degradation and violence of some kind.
You do not demonstrate or indicate any mechanism whatsoever that would support this claim. Also it’s VERY unclear what you mean by “everything” in this context?
You also haven’t shown how being able to communicate is a disadvantage, or how NOT being able to communicate helps learn new concepts?
Is there a single philosophical idea or abstract concept you can point to that originated only because the philosopher spoke a specific language?
Or do you have anything to demonstrate how “life” is better in one language as opposed to another.
Or even just how it makes us culturally “richer” that there are hundreds of languages we don’t understand?
There are no philosophers if there is only one mind and one language because ideas are constructed of intersections (or is it puns? I have confused myself), and the ports of the world have and always will speak pidgin even if we pretend it is Official English or whatever the language of the next empire is.
I don’t need to, try actually talking to an indigenous person, evolutionary biologist or an environmental scientist and if they can stand talking to you for more than 5 minutes they may explain it to you.
I don’t need to, that isn’t my point, my point is you are trying to take a shortcut to intelligence and communication that involves hurling empty symbols back and forth at strangers, that will never lead anywhere unless you and that stranger start to develop a unique language specific to that context that honors and remembers that context… and yes we can do that right now but guess what makes human language such a gift to us that it was passed down to us and entrusted in our stewardship? Do you not see how you are spitting on that gift with your words?
Yes, you can always plant a new 200 year old tree if you cut the 200 year old tree down… but you will have to wait 200 years to experience the true complexity and power that is latent in the seed again.
If you think I am arguing for NOT understanding each other you aren’t actually listening to what I am saying, what I am saying is you are lying to yourself about being able to convey anything once you reach the point you desire and admire and seem to think would be a highwater mark for communication and intelligence.
edit another thought on why I used everything here, you are right I was vague and gesturing at like… everything but that really is the point, there is no intelligence without a fecund context in which to weave it together and that requires diversity in as many different axis as possible to increase the likelihood of it being possible in a given context.