nPostednon December 29, 2015
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nHavenyou ever thought about languages being endangered or going extinct?nSome people do think about such things, and some of them even strivento learn about languages before such extinctions wipe out a littlenmore human culture and diversity.
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Onnthis date in 2003, the last fluent speaker of Akkala Sami died.
Onnthis date in 2003, the last fluent speaker of Akkala Sami died.n
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nSomenpeople peg this as a language extinction event, but others point outnthat there are at least two people still alive (although they are inntheir 70s) who have some knowledge of Akkala Sami.
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nAlso, there arendescriptions of the language, a few published writings in thenlanguage, and at least a few audio recordings of the language.
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nAlthoughnAkkala Sami is one of the most poorly documented languages, we have at least some knowledge of the language that isn’t likely tondisappear any time soon. So, some experts say, Akkala Sami isn’t wholly extinct – it’s just very highly endangered.
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nWherendo the Sami live?
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nThenSami people live in the Arctic are in northern Norway, Sweden,nFinland, and the Kola peninsula of Russia. They used to be callednLapps by English speakers, and they are famous for herding reindeer.
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nThenAkkala Sami live in the easternmost part of their land, in Russia. n
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nShouldnwe care about languages going extinct?
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nAccordingnto a PBS show called The Linguists, languages aren“repositories of thousands of years of a people’s science and art.”
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Ofncourse children in small communities will want to speak the languagenof the majority group, the language of power – in the case of thenAkkala Sami, probably Russian; in the case of other languagencommunities, quite likely English or Hindi or Mandarin or Spanish.nBut when there are no more speakers of a particular language, wenoften lose the oral or written histories of the people, their mythsnand legends, their observations about the healing properties of anparticular kind of leaf or about the climate changes of the land.
Ofncourse children in small communities will want to speak the languagenof the majority group, the language of power – in the case of thenAkkala Sami, probably Russian; in the case of other languagencommunities, quite likely English or Hindi or Mandarin or Spanish.nBut when there are no more speakers of a particular language, wenoften lose the oral or written histories of the people, their mythsnand legends, their observations about the healing properties of anparticular kind of leaf or about the climate changes of the land.n
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nAnothernpoint is that a greater diversity of languages to study broadens ournview of what is “normal” or even possible. To give examples justnfrom a few languages from New Guinea: one language in New Guinea hasn90 sounds (English has only 44); one language in New Guinea uses thensame word for eat, drink and smoke;n one language in New Guinea has 11 different ways to say on. n
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Ofncourse, the loss of one of the less-spoken languages causes some lossnof cultural identity. I think most of us like the idea of a meltingnpot and understand why people might want to, say, marry and startnfamilies with people outside of their own community and assimilatenwith the dominant culture. But I think we also “get” why it isnimportant for most people to remember the traditions, holidays,nreligion, stories, and, yes, language, of their ancestors.
Ofncourse, the loss of one of the less-spoken languages causes some lossnof cultural identity. I think most of us like the idea of a meltingnpot and understand why people might want to, say, marry and startnfamilies with people outside of their own community and assimilatenwith the dominant culture. But I think we also “get” why it isnimportant for most people to remember the traditions, holidays,nreligion, stories, and, yes, language, of their ancestors.n
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nAnfinal possible reason to care about the dying out of a language isnthat bilingualism (or multilingualism) is healthy for individuals,nand it would be far better for kids in minority-language communitiesnto learn both their ancestral tongue and the language of the dominantnculture. Why settle for just one?
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nAlsonon this date:
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nKulignin Poland
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nPresidentnAndrew Johnson’s birthday
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nTicknTock Day
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nExplorernand scientist Joaquin de Acosta’s birthday
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nAnniversarynof Texas’s statehood
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nMadamende Pompadour’s birthday
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nPlannahead:
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Checknout my Pinterest pages on:
Checknout my Pinterest pages on:
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nHistoricaln anniversaries in December
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nAndnhere are my Pinterest boards for:
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nJanuaryn birthdays
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