The Inevitability of Language Death

I think its important to note that the “language” discussed in the article “A Language, Not Quite Spanish, With African Echoes” is actually a Creole. It was composed of two languages that already existed to create a communication form. Spanish is still in high use! It doesn’t really mention the African language influences, but there is a possibility that that language is also in still in use. Also I feel that by accepting technology and outside contact into the culture people must have known that change was inevitable.

It seems that everyone has responded that language is culture. If there are only three people in the world who speak a language, is that really a strong culture? While reading “Languages Die, but Not Their Last Words” I was curious why the languages were being studied. If those three people do die out and the language no longer lives on, I don’t really see how that negatively or positively effects the people left living on earth. Just as easy as gaining new culture, it is unavoidable to lose it. I had to step back from these two articles and remember that they are both from the New York Times. Pure American media. All of our bits of news made to look more exotic than necessary. For instance look at how dramatic the titles of the articles are. They should be Broadway musicals. I can’t help but wonder what the views are of the people in these cultures. I’m not trying to be a Debbie-downer, but when I think of cultural anthropology I often get conflicted with that everlasting question of “why?” Don’t get me wrong, I think Anthropology is really thrilling and I enjoy reading about these things (especially the parts about language!), but I don’t know that I believe that studying dieing language is important. In a sense I suppose we could predict how to stop others from dieing. But isn’t it natural for them to die?

(P.S. I needed a title for my entry. The New York Times has taught me well!)