Language death isn’t THAT inevitable
On the occasion of the publication of his book We the Media into Portuguese, Dan Gillmor has this to say about finding common ground in translation:
We Americans tend to take for granted the ascendency of English. While English has become the international language of commerce, science and aviation — and it’s becoming a common second language around the globe — cultures are holding onto what makes them unique. As they should.
It’s nice to see someone taking note of the fact that linguistic diversity is actually alive and well. Yes, language death is a problem, but there’s something of a cottage industry in linguistic gloom and doom — and not solely with regard to the spread of English. Clay Shirky’s contribution from way back in the last century was particularly dire:
In the next 10 years, we will see the world’s languages sorted into two categories — those that form part of language networks will grow, and those that don’t will shrink, as the export of languages in the last century reshapes the map of the next one.
I don’t buy that.
Every language is its own network. I just don’t buy the idea that a language has to have strong interaction with other languages to exist. (Hopi is doing just fine, thank you very much.)
The well-worn account of English running amok and leaving a trail of linguistic corpses in its path is actually a bit… well… melodramatic. English (and a few other languages — Hindi, Mandarin…) is spreading and becoming a lingua franca, but because the use of language is so fluid, so difficult to predict that we simply can’t know what social, political, and technological forces will shape linguistic trends in the future.
I guess what I’m trying to say is, it’s not all bad news. A little positive thinking and creativity will certainly pay dividends in protecting our linguistic heritage.
Golly, that sounded a little pretentious. ☺
Here are a few relevant posts of varying vintage from my del.icio.us links:
