posted
While we clearly see and regularly discuss the effects of extra-African imperialism on African history, as pristinely exemplified in the Nile Valley of antiquity, this imperialism is having an effect on something else that might be escaping the radar of many observers … the danger of losing indigenous languages. Egypt is a good example where an important and unifying indigenous language [Egyptic] had largely become defunct, with its vestiges finding way in local Egyptian dialects of Arabic. Could some other indigenous African languages be heading that direction? Some observers certainly believe this to be the case. Sections of northwest Africans are fighting to make indigenous Tamazight dialects official language, and for good reason; they don’t want their languages to share the same fate as that of their northeastern brethren. The danger of losing indigenous languages across the globe, is beginning to raise serious concerns amongst sections of linguists, because these languages have secrets to the past locked in, and are therefore quite invaluable in cultural anthropology, namely history [including reconstructing pre-history].
These concerns are expressed in the following exemplary excerpts:
African indigenous languages endangered
By Jabulani Sithole, Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC)
Indigenous languages in southern Africa face extinction if urgent and serious efforts are not made to develop them and raise their status. A report, tabled recently at an international conference in Kenya, warned that thousands of indigenous languages in the world might disappear in the next century. The conference was sponsored by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
Languages are arbitrary oral symbols by which a social group interacts, communicates and self-expresses. It enshrines the culture, customs and secrets of the people. The report estimates that up to 90 percent of the world's languages could die this century, with the valuable knowledge, culture and customs embedded in them gone forever.
The traditional knowledge at threat includes secrets of how to manage habitats and the land in environmentally sustainable ways passed down by word of mouth over many generations. Studies carried out estimate that there are 5,000 to 7,000 spoken languages in the world, of which 4,000 to 5,000 are classified as minority languages
More than 2,500 of these are in immediate danger of extinction and many more are already losing their natural link, 32 percent of these being African. While 234 have already suffered this fate among which are the Khoi-San languages that were spoken in southern Africa in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. In addition to the Khoi-San languages, Chikunda and Dema in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Zambia are also in danger of extinction. Globalization has been singled out as the major catalyst in their disappearance.
The process of turning the world into a village is promoting the use of English, French, Portuguese, Spanish and other European languages at the expense of indigenous languages. "Nature's secrets, locked away in the different indigenous languages may be lost forever as a result of growing globalization," says the report.
English, French and Portuguese are not new to Africa as they are the languages of the former colonial masters. They have been used widely as languages for social mobility and economic interaction, while they are spoken by less than 20 percent of the indigenous population.
In addition to the colonial reason, African states have opted to retain the use of these languages as a unifying force among their diverse language groups. However, another alternative has emerged in east Africa where Swahili is the lingua franca drawing roots from a number of other languages, and is now the seventh most spoken language in the world.
While the disappearance of the languages is imminent, language experts have called for regional governments to put in place policies that ensure the development and constant use of minority languages. "For a language to survive it must be used for a wide range of functions otherwise it begins to wither and die. Thus, where we have allowed higher status functions to be limited to English, French and Portuguese only, other languages then begin to wither and die," said Nkosana Sibuyi, Senior Communications Officer of the Pan South African Language Board.
Most African countries are multilingual with many minority languages and dialects spoken - the DRC has more than 200 languages, Tanzania 120, Angola 63, Mozambique 25 while Botswana and Zimbabwe have about 20 languages each. However, most of the southern African countries have not put in place deliberate policies that promote and elevate minority languages to protect them from their imminent extinction…
UNESCO has also committed itself through a declaration to work towards the preservation of languages that are on the verge of disappearance. "As the disappearance of any language constitutes an irretrievable loss to mankind, it is for UNESCO a task of great urgency to respond to this situation by promoting and if possible, sponsoring programmes of linguistic organisation," reads the UNESCO Declaration.
The prospect of the extinction mentioned in the above article, is trumpeted again…
“Nearly half of the world's languages are endangered and may vanish in this century. The loss to science, to humanity and to the native communities themselves will be catastrophic…”
"After examining how these diverse populations in unusual corners of the world have over millennia named plants and animals, the author ponders whether significant knowledge about these species is being lost with their name.”
“Speakers of thousands of the world’s languages are now abandoning their ancestral tongues at an unprecedented rate. What exactly is lost when speakers of indigenous languages switch to speaking English, Hindi, Russian, or other global tongues? And why should we care if small languages vanish?…
Languages are the repository of thousands of years of a people’s science and art – from observations of ecological patterns to creation myths. The disappearance of a language is not only a loss for the community of speakers itself, but for our common human knowledge of mathematics, biology, geography, philosophy, agriculture, and linguistics. In this century, we are facing a massive erosion of the human knowledge base…
The global abandonment of indigenous languages will bring a massive loss of accumulated knowledge and culture” - K. David Harrison, Ph.D., author of When Languages Die: The Extinction of the World's Languages and the Erosion of Human Knowledge., 2007
A related article...
Linguists identify endangered-language hot spots
By John Noble Wilford
Published: September 19, 2007
Of the estimated 7,000 languages spoken in the world today, linguists say, nearly half are in danger of extinction and are likely to disappear in this century. In fact, they are now falling out of use at a rate of about one every two weeks.
Some endangered languages vanish in an instant, at the death of the sole surviving speaker. Others are lost gradually in bilingual cultures, as indigenous tongues are overwhelmed by the dominant language at school, in the marketplace and on television.
New research, reported Tuesday, has identified the five regions of the world where languages are disappearing most rapidly. The "hot spots" of imminent language extinctions are northern Australia, central South America, North America's upper Pacific coastal zone, eastern Siberia, and an area that includes Oklahoma and the southwestern United States. All of the areas are occupied by aboriginal people speaking diverse languages, but in decreasing numbers.
The study was based on field research and data analysis supported by the National Geographic Society and the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, an organization for the documentation, revitalization and maintenance of languages at risk. The findings are described in the October issue of National Geographic magazine and at www.languagehotspots.org….
Another measure of the threatened decline of many relatively obscure languages, Harrison said, is that speakers and writers of the 83 languages with "global" influence now account for 80 percent of the world population. Most of the thousands of other languages now face extinction at a rate, the researchers said, that exceeds that of birds, mammals, fish or plants. ^ Link
Come to think of it, I’ve been to American Indian Pow Wows, where these folks chant in what appears to be unfamiliar tongue to me, but that is it; as a whole, I don’t know what the original language of these folks sound like, or the extent to which it exists beyond such festive chanting, or if they exist at all as day-to-day functional language. Foreign imperialism has ensured its total suppression or wiping out.
Posts: 1947 | Registered: Sep 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
^ It's funny that you mention this since just last night I was reading a National Geographic article called 'Vanishing Tongues'. The majority of endangered languages lie in Eurasia (especially Siberia), Australia, and the Americas, but African languages seem not as endagered as the others and have much better chance of survival if properly preserved.
The big hot spot in Africa are Southern Africa, East Africa, and the Maghreb (Northwest Africa). The Tamazigh cultural movement makes Berber least likely to disappear, but more attention should be directed to those in rural Eastern Africa and Southern Africa.
Posts: 26361 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
| IP: Logged |
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic