«ОҚУШЫЛАР
»
сериясы
«XVIII СӘТБАЕВ ОҚУЛАРЫ»
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prone to die. So, three questions arise from this why are they dying, is it
important to save them and how can we prevent their extinction?
It is not a secret that languages play a huge role in our everyday
life and it is impossible to imagine the life without them, all fields of life
would be affected. Communities which languages are endangered can
lose their history, poetry, and culture. For example, Eyak an Alaskan
language in south-central Alaska is dying out, there is a small community
that speaks this language explains their pain by the poem:
«K’aadih ulah uuch’ q’e’ iiłi’ee. SitinhGayuudik six
̣
a’ iinsdi’ahł.
Aan, deelehtdal dlaGaxuu, ts’it dlaGaxuu atxsłilahł? AtGaxłalaał. Useless
to go back there. My uncles too have all died out on me. Yes, why is it
I alone, just I alone have managed to survive? I survive» [3].
Now 2018 and no one can understand this poem, but in this poem
problem of extinction of the language is included. Eyaks expressed their
pain and disappointment to show people that it is sadly to lose your
native language. People of vanishing community can only watch how
their language and culture disappear. So, language defines our collective
and individual identities.
As I mentioned before it affects history too, due to the fact that
with every word, which is vanishing, we are on one step lag behind
development, we are losing our chance to understand the world. Because
endangered languages could be a great source of information to which,
unfortunately, we do not have access now. Although, it was possible
for scientists to find new medicine because speakers of endangered
languages knew detailed information about flora and fauna of their
area. For instance, Nettle and Romaine claim, «Many Hawaiians have
now forgotten more of that local knowledge accumulated and handed
down orally over the past 2,000 years than western scientists will ever
learn» [4]. Also, linguists could find data about not certified linguistic
forms, which would help them to develop the way people speak now in
the world. Therefore, I assume that it is important to save endangered
languages because they are tools to understand our ancestor’s life and if
even one language dies we may not succeed in our research to ancient
life. Therefore, I am going to show you causes of extinction of languages.
First and foremost, not all languages in the world are allowed
to speak even privately and sometimes government even release law
which you cannot ignore. Otherwise, consequences can be deplorable.
For instance, in Turkey, the existence of Kurdish was officially denied.
They were called «Mountain Turks» because their native name was not
allowed and there was censorship associated with the Kurdish language.
It all happened because the Kurds are a distinct ethnicity and Turks
wanted to promote Turkish nationalism, so they tried to destroy Kurdish
culture with help of banning the Kurdish language in 1991. Because of
this Kurdish was on the brink of extinction but now situation becomes a
little better. The EU has declared support for communities, whose rights
for speaking their native languages were violated [5].
Secondly, physical loss of speakers affects it too. Physical loss of
speakers can be because of genocide, natural disasters, and other similar
incidents. Moureen Hoffmann maintained that in 2009 in Aragon was the
conference, where genocide on an indigenous community in Rondônia
State, Brazil was discussed. In Brazil in twentieth-century entire Akuntsú
tribe underwent genocide and now there are only seven tribal members
of this community. So, Akuntsú language is one of the most endangered
languages in Brazil now. Also, some countries affected by tsunami and
flood. Related to the magazine «the New Republic» Dusner language
has the only small number of people, because of the flood in 2010 in
Papua, Indonesia. Well then, nature has an indirect and direct effect on
physical loss of speakers [6].
Thirdly, a disintegration of the language community, because of
displacement in the past, assimilation and economic purposes, affects
extinction of languages. When people moved from one area to another,
where language was another, they had to learn the language; otherwise,
they would have strained relationship with locals. For instance, according
to Anouschka Foltz speakers of Proto-Indo-European migrated to
countries of Europe and Asia 8000 years ago and they brought massive
language change and language death [7]. There are many such examples
and it continues now too. Increase in migration leads to the death of
language.
The increasing use of other languages causes the death of indigenous
ones. One phenomenon today is English, which is studied all over the
world because it is primary language in science, trade, technology, and
education. According to Nettle and Romaine «by 1966, English was
the language of 70 percent of the world’s mail and 60 percent of radio
and television broadcasts» [8]. Also, knowing English will help to find
a job and have easier access to information, which is mostly in English
now. And unfortunately while studying new language people forget
their native one.
To realize that we live in the world where more than 6000
endangered languages exist is horrible. All our spheres of development
depend on language. So, it is extremely important to save all languages
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