D Reading 1 2 Youwill read an article about disappearing languages. Before you read, discuss the following, 1 The write argues that we must try to save the languages tat are threatened with extinction. What reasons do you think he gives for this belie? Think about cultue history identity Vanishing Voices ‘The world’s languages are disappearing at an unprecedented rate, but does it matter as long as people can communicate? David Crystal explains why linguistic diseasitis the key to our survival. In 1995, linguist Bruce Connell, was doing some field ‘work in Cameroon. He found a language called Kasabe, which no westemer had studied before. It had just one speaker left, man called Bogon. Connell had no time on that visit, so he decided to return to Cameroon a year Tater. He arrived in the early winter, only to Jearn that 'Bogon had died on November 5. fi ‘There is nothing unusual about Bogon's story Communities have come and gone throughout history, taking their languages with them. But, judged by the standards of the past, what is happening today is extraordinary. There are now about 6,000 languages in the world. OF these, about half are going to die out during the next century. R ‘Many things can kill a language, from natural disasters to ‘cultural assimilation and genocide. On July 17 1998, an earthquake in Papua New Guinea, killed more than 2,200 people and displaced a further 10,000: several Villages were destroyed. As the survivors have moved ‘away, will these communities (and thus their languages) survive the trauma of displacement? B This is often accompanied by a feeling of shame about using the old language. Those families that do continue to use it tend to do so in an idicsyncratic manner, resulting in “family dialects’. Within a generation, healthy bilingualism within a family can slip into self conscious semilinguaism, and {8868 into monolingualism ie ‘Many different skills and characteristics enable a species to survive in different environments, and the need to 38 2. The fllowing are mentioned inthe article. How might they be related tothe death ofa language? ‘natural disasters + doplacerent * other dominant languages . Some paragraphs have been removed from the ‘ext, Add them from the paragraphs given on the ‘opposite page (A-G). There is one paragraph you do not need to use ‘maintain linguistic diversity stands on the shoulders of this argument. BRGApSUIAIER within 2 language is most of a community's history, a large part of its cultural identity, and a wealth of knowledge which the rest of the world can access. 5 Not everyone appreciates these things. Some people ‘accept the Babel myth: that the multiplicity of the world’s languages is @ curse rather than a blessing. Ifonly we had {just one language in the world we would all be better off. ‘World peace would be established, fe In fact, a dying language will cause conflict rather than liminate it, albeit not between countries but rather within the individuals who have abandoned. their ancestors’ language. The first generation is, typically, not so concerned, as its members are still struggling to cstablish their new social position and master their new language. It is their children, secure in the new language and in a much better socio-economic position, with battles over land claims and civil rights behind them, who begin to reflect on (and feel unbearable guilt over) the heritage they have lost. | eee etd Can we save a few thousand languages, just like that? ‘Yes, though it would not be easy. To save a language you ‘must get linguists into the field, support the community with language teachers, publish grammars and dictionaries - and all over a period of Several years. But these difficulties do not mean we can ignore the death of languages. Regretting the less in the future would be pointless, When a spoken language dies, it leaves no. archaeology. Itis as if it has never been.“However, all the big trouble spots of the world in recent decades have been monolingual countries - Cambodia, Vietnam, Rwanda, Burundi, Yugoslavia, Northern Ireland, And all big monolingual countries have had their civil wars. If people want to fight each other, it takes more than a common language to stop them. Even if people stay put, their language may sill de as a result of cultural assimilation. At fist, there i pressure on the people to speak the dominant language. Then there is 4 period of bilingualism, Finally, bilingualism starts to decline, withthe old language BRING tothe new. This leads to the third stage, in which the younger generation finds its old language less and less relevant. ‘On November 4, Kasahe existed as one of the world's languages; on Noverber 6, it did not. The event might hhave caused a stir in Bogor’s village. Ifyou are the last, speaker of a language, you ae often considered special in your community. But outside the village, who knew or mourned the passing of what he IGBQHGR? Breton, in north-east France, is « classic example of a language reducing dramatically in mumbers. At the beginning of the 20th century it was spoken by a milion people; it is now down to less than a quarter of that Breton can be saved if enough effort is made - the kind of effort that has already helped Welsh to recover from