Posted
on December 29, 2015
Have
you ever thought about languages being endangered or going extinct?
Some people do think about such things, and some of them even strive
to learn about languages before such extinctions wipe out a little
more human culture and diversity.
On
this date in 2003, the last fluent speaker of Akkala Sami died.
Some
people peg this as a language extinction event, but others point out
that there are at least two people still alive (although they are in
their 70s) who have some knowledge of Akkala Sami.
Also, there are
descriptions of the language, a few published writings in the
language, and at least a few audio recordings of the language.
Although
Akkala Sami is one of the most poorly documented languages, we have at least some knowledge of the language that isn't likely to
disappear any time soon. So, some experts say, Akkala Sami isn't wholly extinct – it's just very highly endangered.
Where
do the Sami live?
The
Akkala Sami live in the easternmost part of their land, in Russia.
Should
we care about languages going extinct?
According
to a PBS show called The Linguists, languages are
“repositories of thousands of years of a people's science and art.”
Of
course children in small communities will want to speak the language
of the majority group, the language of power – in the case of the
Akkala Sami, probably Russian; in the case of other language
communities, quite likely English or Hindi or Mandarin or Spanish.
But when there are no more speakers of a particular language, we
often lose the oral or written histories of the people, their myths
and legends, their observations about the healing properties of a
particular kind of leaf or about the climate changes of the land.
Another
point is that a greater diversity of languages to study broadens our
view of what is “normal” or even possible. To give examples just
from a few languages from New Guinea: one language in New Guinea has
90 sounds (English has only 44); one language in New Guinea uses the
same word for eat, drink and smoke;
one language in New Guinea has 11 different ways to say on.
Of
course, the loss of one of the less-spoken languages causes some loss
of cultural identity. I think most of us like the idea of a melting
pot and understand why people might want to, say, marry and start
families with people outside of their own community and assimilate
with the dominant culture. But I think we also “get” why it is
important for most people to remember the traditions, holidays,
religion, stories, and, yes, language, of their ancestors.
A
final possible reason to care about the dying out of a language is
that bilingualism (or multilingualism) is healthy for individuals,
and it would be far better for kids in minority-language communities
to learn both their ancestral tongue and the language of the dominant
culture. Why settle for just one?
Also
on this date:
Scientist Carl Ludwig's birthday (he's a pioneer in the study of urine!)
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ahead:
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