In your blog response, I want you discuss one or more of the following questions:
Should we care about languages dying out? Why? Is language important to cultural identity? What is lost when we lose a language?
Feel free to post your own thread or to comment on other people’s threads or to their responses. Again, blog responses will count towards your participation grade.
Responses to blog questions will be due by the beginning of each class. Responses to blog assignment #2 are due by the beginning of our third class on February 14. Responses to blog assignment #1 are due by class time tomorrow.
Each blog question will be worth 6 participation grade points. You should, however, feel free to continue commenting on threads after the due date. Any extra activity will help you earn additional participation points.
12 comments:
If languages are to die out, so will the culture and traditions expressed through that language. The heratige of what was spoken of our antsesters and the linguistics of their cerimonies are now lost to us, we have not always been "civilized." It is sad to see the decline of the Myan culture and Latin civilizations and their cultures. We are now lost to a lot of our history when it comes to the ages of the cavemen, therefor we are lost to our culture. We have picked it up from when we kicked the Indians out. It is sad to see such cultures that mean so much to people be lost because the grandparents do not have the strength to teach their grandchildren the languages that they spoke before they were monopolized by the culture that they live in now. Linguistics is not only the spoken language of a culture, it is its roots and beginnings, but we forget that.
7,000 languages are a lot and I do not think we should care about a few dying out. Because of globalization, the world's languages are becoming less diverse, making it simpler for everyone to communicate without needing a translator, or having to learn a minority language in order to speak to those who don't use a more dominant language. Language is very important to cultural identity, but to an extent. People living in the same area should only share one language. The north shouldn't be different from the south, east, or west. As cultures are combining, so should the languages.
It’s important to keep language intact because they provide clues to people’s culture and can tell stories about what the people thought and did. Some language may be written on an urn but if we forget how to read it we will never know what it said or what link it may have provided. However, the less languages to choose from, the easier it will be for everyone to communicate. While this will make the world less interesting, mass conformity, it may also force people to find new ways to express themselves because they lack the separation of language. It will also lead to expansion of the English language. If people are limited to English, they will be forced to use it to its full extend in order to expand it. Societies and the world are always changing; good things and equally bad things will come from either keeping the languages or from losing them. People should learn not to fear change and to except it and work on making the change better. Obviously those other languages weren’t doing the job, otherwise they would still be around. This could just be another form of natural selection. I do think it’s a good thing that they are making a record of them. It’s important that we can go back and look at them and research them. However, that doesn’t mean we need to use them in every day speech.
The notion of dead languages will happen and does happen. It is a part of human existence. I think it is sad but currently no one in our country uses latin but there are thousands of books about translations and literature so the language could be considered dead but i think through literature the culture will be preserved. Look at hieroglyphics the language is dead but the written word is still there to be interpreted. Language is words borrowed from other cultures and are in-simulated into a new culture. Language is always changing and always will. I bet in ten thousand years English is a dead language in the north american continent.
Considering that linguistics is a field of Anthropology, we should care about languages dying out. How a culture's people communicate with one another is an integral part of their daily life. It is how they think and how they interact with each other. Since our language is not one that will likely become extinct in the next couple of years we tend to trivialize the lose of other peoples languages. The lose of a language is the lose of an idea, of a way of life and a peoples cultural identity.
Languages are a very unique part of culture. If languages start dieing out part of the culture dies with it. If almost half of the languages die out then i believe this is a problem. Since most of these languages have no written text to preserve the language then maybe research has to be done to find the people who know these languages and document them. The loss of these languages is substantial and something should be done.
We should definitely care about languages dying out. Language is a huge part of culture, and very important to cultural identity. If you think about it, languages are like the calling cards of our cultures. Languages are a definitive line, dividing cultures from each another. People in other countries that speak another language have much different cultural backgrounds. From the food they eat, to the clothes they wear, and the activities they participate in. If a language is lost, culture is lost. A part of a culture that once existed, would then be gone forever. I think we need to do the best we can to preserve scarce languages from other cultures. Otherwise, the world as we know it might end up like the South Park episode “Goobacks.” In this episode, everybody from the future returns, and they all have the same color skin, where the same clothes, and speak the same language. I would much rather live in a world with very diverse cultures, and learn from others about their cultures.
It is sad to hear about any language dying out. Language is very important to every culture, and so is tradition. I think that every cultures main goal is to grow, and stick to its origins. I feel that taking away a cultures language, is like disrespecting the elders that created the culture. Although this issue is important, it is something that seems natural. The more dominant cultures are obviously going to take more space on this earth. As the more dominant cultures take up space, the other cultures are more likely to convert. I also agree it would suck if the world ended up like the “Goodbacks” episode.
ok so languages are important, because they allow for easy expression and communication, and they carry on cultures, and of course those should be preserved...for the sake of humanity and compassion (no one wants to be forgotten into the pages of history). but it gets me thinking: where would we be--as an entire culture--if language had never been created? maybe language is what has separated us. its hard to deny that words, when used over and over, lose their meaning and what we say becomes empty and thoughtless. honestly, how many of us actually mean "how are you as a human being doing right now" when we ask "how are you?" and how many of us actually mean "good," seeing as its the common response. if language was never developed, i think we would rely much more on feelings. if our eyes really are the windows to our souls, if we use them, people can learn a lot about eachother without saying a thing. theres proof even now (ex. "what are you giving me that look for?"). language brings people together in a culture, and thats good. but thats also just the problem; it brings people in a culture together, no one else. like an inside joke. no one on the outside is going to understand until its explained, and then its just not funny anymore. we would be closer as human beings (stress on "beings") if language was never developed.
Should we care about languages dying out? Why? Is language important to cultural identity? What is lost when we lose a language?
preserving the languages of our age is important in order to maintain preserving their cultures. languages allow cultures to remain diverse, and keeps them their own. because of the "bigger man" coming in and almost forcing one universal language upon mankind (i.e English), the human race has succumbed to putting everyone on the same level, and sacrificed human identity.
Okay, so I'm probably one of the few people who think that we should not be concerned that some languages are dying out. First, that is a natural result of globalization and just the passage of time....languages die out as society changes, that's natural and not something to worry about. Second, I don't think that globalization is a bad thing, it connects people together from all over the world, which isn't a bad thing. Also, language influences how people think, certain early languages don't have words for concepts that we have today, so it is important for progress that people learn modern language to understand concepts.
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