Jon Sarasuak kontatzen dizkio Andoni Egan?ari Ixil-en artean bizitako batzuk Zozoak Beleari liburuan. In all likelihood, you do not recognize this language. If you do, you are one of twelve speakers of Itz? left in the world today. The Guatemalan language of Itz? is one of four hundred and seventeen languages classified as nearly extinct.
In 1822, Jean Francois Champollion deciphered the Egyptian hieroglyphics on the Rosetta Stone. This key to the Egyptian language allowed scholars to study the culture and history of ancient Egypt . Now, almost two hundred years later, we are on the threshold of a very different development in the history of language. Where Champollion breathed life into an ancient language, we are now slowly but surely extinguishing them. Globalization brings with it increased communication and cooperation among ethnicities, races, and cultures-but at what cost? People are told to speak a language other than their native tongue and to allow their culture to be assimilated for socioeconomic “convenience.” Those who oppose this change are labeled as provincial and narrow-minded. Most people would not mind the use of threatened languages by “those old folks, too set in their ways to change.” They would even view with interest a PBS documentary showcasing a disappearing tribe and its language. But to use it in everyday business? Who could possibly want to do that, when newspeak is so much, well … easier?
As the language of a culture dies, so do the knowledge, experience and wisdom gained by that culture. The people who shape a culture lose their sense of identity and community when the binding tie of language is cut. Of course, skeptics may argue that one tiny tribe losing its language is of little consequence as its language is so far removed from them; its loss does not affect them. On the contrary, the preservation of indigenous peoples’ language greatly affects all people. For example, if a tribe in the Amazon rainforest, such as the Pirah? of Brazil, loses its language, also lost is its vast knowledge of the medicinal values of plants in the rainforest.
Besides medicinal values, threatened languages are spiritually irreplaceability as well. What do modern-day Christians have in common with the inhabitants of Iran and Iraq? More than one might think: These Middle Eastern people speak a modern day version of Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus. As ancient languages slowly collapse under the weight of more universal tongues, the language of Jesus and other leaders may be lost.
What can be done to prevent these atrocities? The solutions must be not only immediate, but also long-term. The languages closest to extinction, those with only one or two speakers left, must be written and recorded. Dictionaries must be produced so that the meanings of the words are not lost forever. Linguists and anthropologists begin the effort, but many more people must become involved for the preservation to succeed.
College students can spend their semesters or summers abroad, not perfecting the language they have studied, but instead saving one so that others might learn it. Long-term solutions must also be put into effect. In order for a language to thrive, it must first be taught in schools to an entirely new generation of the culture. The people of Wales (Cymru in Welsh) have experienced a cultural revival because they began to teach Welsh in the schools again, as well as add Welsh to official public documents and road signs. Now Welsh, once near extinction, is spoken by more than half a million people. Today, this is one of few success stories. Many more languages are experiencing a decline rather than a revival as people are losing their cultures in the name of progress.
The annihilation of language must be brought to a halt before more people lose their sense of identity. The wisdom of ancient cultures must not be lost forever.
Bridget Lines is a first-year in the Collge. She doesn’t speak Itz?.
