Save the Language

It is our duty as the dominant species on planet Earth to protect animals, plants and and the entire natural environment. This is a duty towards the planet, ourselves and future generations. We hear quite a bit these days about various endangered animal species that need our attention. At this point I would like to mention that all of us at USCTS are committed not only to green practices in our offices, but we also support many environmental and animal rights organizations and we strongly encourage all of our associates to do the same.

But what about languages?   

Languages can also be endangered and become extinct. In fact more languages are extinct than are spoken today. According to estimates, half of over 6000 languages that are spoken today will be gone before the end of the century. Languages constitute the cultural wealth of the ethnic groups that they belong to; they contain knowledge about the history of those groups and are part of their identity.

There are many reasons why languages become extinct. Extinction can be quick and violent if a small group of speakers is subjected to genocide, illness or natural disaster. There may be other reasons, like, for example, if a community is introduced to a second language and that language becomes dominant. This can happen for economic and social reasons. A community may choose to favor that new, second language and abandon their original native language in pursuit of greater economic and social advancement. Not only the language becomes the victim here, but also traditions, culture, the so-called old ways and ethnic identity.

Regrettably it has happened often in human bloody history that language elimination was a conscious effort on the part of governments. Here in the United States such policy was conducted towards Native American tribes. Adult members of the tribe were forbidden to use their native language and children were forcibly taken away, placed among white settlers and forced to use exclusively the English language. Consequently, they would forget the language that they were originally born to. Fortunately, today Native American tribes are working hard to bring their languages back from the brink of extinction and they teach their children how to speak them.

  

Incidentally, it is not the number of speakers of a given language that is a decisive factor on whether or not a language is endangered – it is their age. Hence the emphasis on teaching children. For example , there are some languages in Indonesia that have tens of thousands of speakers, but are still endangered because children are not learning them anymore. The population of users is aging and also moving away towards using the national Indonesian language.

Languages just like traditions, customs, help to make this world a rich and fascinating place. Let us do our best to help them survive and thrive.