Saving Endangered Languages

There are countless languages that are disappearing or becoming

endangered as years pass. Languages such as the Pitkern language, which is
spoken on two South Pacific Islands called the Pitcairn Island and the Norfolk Island,
only has approximately 500 speakers left, according to an article written by James
Harbeck in 2015. What is important about saving fading languages, such as Pitkern
and many others, is the knowledge they possess about the world. For this reason I
believe no language should disappear. By studying how numerous languages are
dying out, and the different ways others have tried to save endangered languages I
believe that it may be possible to find a solution or solutions that will help save
more endangered languages.
Naser Nouri, a professor who is a part of the Department of English Language
and Linguistics in Islamic Azad University and who studies sociolinguistics, which is
the study of endangered languages; mentioned in one of his articles, written in
2015, that there are four possible ways a language could die out. These four ways
are a sudden death; radical language death, bottom-to-top death, and gradual
death. Sudden language death is when the speakers of a language suddenly die.
Radical language death is when the people of a specific language stop speaking
because they are either forced to or are doing it because of a national issue. For
example the Armenian Genocide is a possible example of how a language couldve
potentially died out due, as millions of people died during 1915 through 1917.
Bottom-to-top language death begins from the lower class and rises up to the
higher class or places of worship, such as a church. For example, the Coptic
language is considered a dying language, as common Egyptians no longer decide to
speak it and is now mainly used only for religious purposes. Finally, gradual

language death, which is also the most common form language death, happens
when an official language begins to fade due to the over use of a newer language
(paragraphs 3-7). By knowing these problems of how languages begin to fade and
die out we could find possible ways of saving languages from becoming extinct. By
trying to prevent these situations from happening we could preserve the ideas
expressed through these endangered languages.
If a dying language is saved, the ideas of that specific culture are also saved.
With every language there are unique phrases or words used for communicating
certain ideas. In an article written by James Harbeck, a writer in The Week
Magazine, he states that if any language is to die out we will lose information about
plants, animals, ecosystems, and geography (paragraph 2). In another article
written in 2015 by Judith Thurman, a writer in The New Yorker who has also written
some books and has won several awards for her writing pieces, she explains her
encounter with a man named Joubert Yanten Gomez. Gomez, who is also known as
his tribal name Keyuk, was fascinated by his familys history while he was a boy,
and decided to study the Selknam culture, which is located in Chile. After studying
the Selknam language Keyuk soon became a fluent speaker. Being able to
understand the language Keyuk was able to have a new perspective of the world.
He stated that the Selknam mythology is rich, everything in our world-plants and
animals, the sun and starts-has a voice. (paragraph 7). By studying the language
and being interested in his cultures beliefs and its ways of thinking Keyuk was able
to build a stronger understanding of the language, which he could pass down to
others so that more generations may be able to understand the Selknam culture. If
we try to push these endangered languages to be taught, rather than having them
die from one of the four possible ways as mentioned in Nouris article, there is a

possible way of being able to preserve the ideas and beliefs these languages have
of the world. During the time Thurman conducted the interview with Keyuk he was
the last speaker of the Selknam language. Seeing how Keyuk was driven to study
the Selknam culture and language is a perfect example of showing how to try and
save a dying language.
Through strong determination it may be possible to preserve endangered
languages. By gathering a community that is willing to strive and save their dying
language it would help increase the chances of that language being saved. There
have been countless attempts to help save endangered languages such as Mohawk
groups in Canada that organized language study camps for their own language,
people forming radio stations to connect to speakers living in a diverse culture, and
people trying to pass down the language through their children. One example of an
attempt to try and save an endangered language is mentioned in an article written
by The New York Times writer Kirk Semple, which is titled By Using Language
Rooted in Andes, Internet Shows Hosts Hope to Save It. The article mentions how a
group of friends in their apartment located in the Bronx, New York decided to start
their own Kichwa radio station. Kichwa is an endangered language that migrated
from Ecuador and has a small community of speakers in the Bronx. This group of
friends saw that Kichwa was gradually dying in the Bronx and decided to form their
own radio station to try and help keep Kichwa alive. By forming their radio station
they hoped to provide an incentive for the Kichwa speaking population that lives
in the Bronx to value their language and culture (Semple, 2014). Another example
of people trying to preserve their language is mentioned in Judith Thurmans paper.
In Thurmans paper she mentions how study camps were formed in 1998 Ontario,
Canada to help preserve the Mohawk language and are currently still being used. As

time progressed more camps were formed to help people attend these learning
sessions closer to their house (Thurman, 2015). Due to the love these individuals
had for their language they tried to find ways of preserving their language and
making it stronger. Through the action of starting a radio station to preserve the
Kichwa language, and forming a camp for people to learn the Mohawk language,
both languages were able to strengthen and grow. By influencing others to study
endangered languages we could even help expand the speaking population of that
language.
There have been countless languages that have died out. However, studying
these historic languages may potentially revive them. In Judith Thurmans paper
she also discusses the story of Jessie Little Doe Baird who is a member of the
Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, located in Massachusetts. By joining a group of linguist
and studying the historic writings of the Wampanoag tribe Barid was able to learn
the language and teach it to her daughter who is native speaker of Wopanaak
(paragraph 32). In Thurmans article there is another story that mentions the revival
of a dormant language. Daryl Baldwin, a member of the Miami tribe of Oklahoma
studied an Algonquian language that died approximately 50 years ago. After
studying this language he taught his daughter and also started the Miami Center at
Miami University located in Ohio that focuses on teaching students the old
Algonquian language. Due to his dedication of focusing on reviving the Miami tribes
language Baldwin was able to expand the speaking population of what use to be an
extinct language (paragraph 34). By working hard both Jessie Baird and Daryl
Baldwin were able to revive their native dead languages and allow them to grow by
teaching others about their language. Both Baird and Baldwin are excellent
examples of how studying and pushing a language on others who are interested in it

could help preserve that language. Studying and teaching languages it is possible
not only to revive extinct languages but also save endangered languages. By saving
these languages we are also saving a culture as well as the valuable teachings
about the world this language has to offer humanity.
Although there are numerous reasons for why endangered languages should
be saved, such as preserving the culture of the people who speak that specific
language, there are several arguments of why endangered languages shouldnt be
saved. As mentioned in James Harbecks article gradual language death is very
common, and in an article written by Nancy C. Dorian, a famous linguists who was
also a professor of Linguistics in German and Anthropology at Bryn Mawr College at
Pennsylvania, she gives examples of how language gradually died out as people
conquered other countries or regions. For example, Dorian mentions how the
Spanish conquering of the Aztec and Inca civilizations during the 15 th and 16th
century Imperialism caused both American civilizations to learn the Spanish
language, which eventually undermined their original language, leaving only a few
speaking it. Dorian also goes on to mention in her paper that not all groups that
conquered forced their language on others. In fact she mentions a few cases where
the conquerors learned the language of the natives of that land. For example,
Dorian mention how The Vikings would learn the language of a colony they took
over, abandoning their own language. Dorian then goes on the mention that The
Vikings would do this because they realized that their language wasnt as powerful
in size as the language of the colony they took over, for example the Roman
speech forms in Normandy and Sicily and to a Slavic speech form in
Russia.(Grenoble & Whaley, 1998, Pages 3-5). Although it may be important to
preserve endangered languages these instances show how people change their

language so that they may better understand the new society that they are living
in. In James Harbecks article brings up an interesting point mentioned by Salikoko
Mufwene that states all languages change all the time, and language death and
language birth are not separate things. Harbeck then goes on stating that if
speakers no longer want to speak a language, who are we to tell them that they are
wrong? Its their language, not ours, and its paternalistic of us to expect them to do
as we wish just to satisfy our need for authentic cultures. Reading this statement
made by Harbeck I connected it back to what Nancy Dorian mentioned in her article
about languages fading out because the people wanted to fit in with the new
society they were living in. This made me think of a new perspective of cultures
preserving their languages and that maybe several of these languages became
extinct because they felt that their language wasnt important compared to their
new dominant language and that theyd rather have their generation as well as
future generations fit in and try to be more modernized rather than sticking with old
traditions.
Each language has a unique way of describing certain things in our everyday
lives. By allowing languages to die out we are losing these unique ways of
describing the marvelous wonders of the world. Although it is ultimately up to the
culture to decide whether or not they wish to preserve and save their language, it
would be beneficial to preserve a language so that future generations may be able
to learn more about the past. If it were possible to inspire everyone about the
importance of what language teaches us and influence them to study endangered
languages there could be a drastic growth in the speakers of these endangered
languages. There may also be a potential possibility to revive other neglected
languages if there was a push to study these other languages. Language is a way of

communicating emotions, ideas such as technological and medical breakthroughs,

beliefs, cultures, and history. Through the examples mentioned in this paper there is
reason to believe that endangered languages could be saved and the most powerful
way to strengthen these endangered languages is to have a strong passion to study
for them. By having a strong passion for a language and studying it one could either
save an endangered language or revive a neglected languages.

Work Cited
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2.

Grenoblb, L. A., & Whaley, L. I. (1998). Endangered languages.

Harbeck, J. (2015, March 02). Why do we fight so hard to preserve endangered languages?

Retrieved October 9, 2016, from http://theweek.com/articles/541609/why-fight-hard=preserve3.

4.
5.

endangeredlanguages.
Nouri, Naser. "Is Azerbaijani Turkish an endangered language? Language attitudes among Azerbaijani
youth in Tabriz." Theory and Practice in Language Studies 5.7 (2015): 1476+. Literature
Resource Center. Web. 9 Oct. 2016.
Semple, Kirk. (2014, August 15) By using language rooted in Andes, internet shows hosts hope to
save it. The New York Times.
Thurman, J. (2015, March, 30). A loss for words. New Yorker, 91(6), 32-1