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Endangered Languages: Why Should We Care?

Allison Hayashida

ENDANGERED LANGUAGES
I. Introduction
According to the Ethnologue site, it states that there is an estimate of 6909 languages,
although the number varies depending on peoples definition of what language means. There is
a general consensus that the amount of languages today range from 6000 to 7000. According to
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) website, there
are over two hundred languages extinct and over five hundred languages labeled endangered.
This does not sound too critical when compared to how many languages there are in the world,
but scholars are saying it is possible that in the next century, only about 10% of languages will
survive, which is roughly about six hundred languages (Baker, 2011). Going from over 6000
languages to only six hundred is quite a big difference. This amount can change if people start
caring about endangered languages and taking action in maintaining and revitalizing those
languages. Along with the school environment having a role in maintaining and revitalizing a
language, the community can also play a part on how they can help revitalize a language. The
community can form a more concrete identity if their language is once again revived and
maintained. Although, there are circumstances where environmental factors cause languages to
become endangered, and other factors too that lead to language endangerment. But why should
people care in the first place if a language is endangered? Drawing on this question, things that
are lost with a language are culture, diversity, knowledge, and identity.
One perspective to point out is that some people do not want diverse languages and wish
there were only a handful of languages spoken to make communication easier. These people
who wish for a monolingual country are those who come from major monolingual nations, and
make the assumption that, when the day arrives, it will be their own language which, of course,
everyone will use (Crystal, 2002 p. 28). Those who come from a minority or multilingual

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society will rarely wish for a monolingual nation because then their language will be replaced
with the majority or dominant language.
These people are also disillusioned with the impression that being a monolingual country
will lead to faster and easier communication, peaceful life, an increase in mutual understanding,
and collaboration with countries that speak different languages. If there is to be a monolingual
country, then everyone will think the same way and will not bring in new perspectives from their
culture and language. There are some countries that fight with each other even though they are a
monolingual country, for instance, North and South Korea. They use the same language, live in
the same country, Koreans consider the North as their fellow brothers, and yet they are divided
and not in peace. These go against the idea that there can be peace in a monolingual country and
have easier negotiations even though there is only one language spoken. If it is difficult to have
peace in a small monolingual country, what makes people think there will be peace in a larger
country like the United States is a question that needs to be answered.
II. Factors of Endangered Languages
The amount of speakers of a language can be reduced by natural causes such as
earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, and other disasters. In small communities that are isolated, these
disasters can take a toll on the amount of inhabitants left once things calm down. In 1998, there
was an earthquake that hit the coast of E. Saundaun Province, Papua New Guinea, which killed
and displaced many villages. There were four villages that were greatly affected by it and these
villages had used different languages, and so the amount of speakers had lessened drastically
(Crystal, 2002). People are displaced also by unfavorable conditions, such as famine and
drought. The area was not damaged physically, unlike natural disasters, but not suitable to live.

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During the colonial period, settlers brought diseases to the indigenous peoples and huge
populations were killed because of it. One example of this happened when an influx of
Westerners came to Hawaii and introduced diseases to the indigenous people through animals
and humans. Many had died due to measles, leprosy, and even the common cold. The Hawaiian
population and language took a heavy toll when this epidemic occurred.
Cultural assimilation effects language directly and the speakers of the language. Crystal
(2002) states cultural assimilation defined as one culture is influenced by a more dominant
culture, and begins to lose its character as a result of its members adopting new behaviour and
mores (p. 77). This occurs when there is an influx of people who overtake the indigenous
people or due to urbanization with production of cities and leads to new developments of
transportation and communication. This leads to pressure from the government or peer groups
on people to use the dominant language. For instance, Manx, or Manx Gaelic, is the language
spoken on the Isle of Man, a small island located between England, Wales, Scotland, Northern
Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland. In the early 15th century, English influence had peaked
when Henry IV gave Sir John Stanley the island (Ager, 2009). This led to contact with England
and English becoming more pronounced as the language of trade and shops. Because there was
an increase of goods traded with England, Scotland, and Ireland, the Isle of Man attracted a lot of
merchants, which led to more towns emerging and the use of English more dominant since it was
the language of trade. Manx was slowly ousted and people had to use the dominant language to
communicate and trade with visitors and businessmen.
Due to assimilation, bilinguals emerge speaking both the new language and the native
language, but the native language slowly starts to become the second language with the younger
generation. The younger generation becomes more proficient in the new language and will turn

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to it more because they start to view their language in a negative light. They associate their
native language as old-fashioned and mass media increases the negativity towards it. In the end,
there are less domains and people to speak with using the indigenous language since more people
start to rely on the new language.
The lack of intergenerational transmission leads to declining speakers and a language
shift occurs. Intergenerational transmission is when parents, or the older generation, pass down
and teach the younger generation the language. Romaine (2006) states that without
intergenerational mother tongue transmission, no language maintenance is possible. That
which is not transmitted cannot be maintained (p. 443). One of the ways that can reverse
language shift is by intergenerational transmission. The best way to learn language is at home
and being surrounded majority of the time with family who speak the minority language.
Though at home is one of the best ways to learn a language, a powerful domain, the education
system, is taking part in increasing the minority language.

III. What is Lost with the Language

They [indigenous peoples] believe their culture is expressed through their language and
cannot be adequately represented by any other language (Berlin, 2000, p. 5). For instance,
providing authentic meaning of pragmatics of a culture in another language is a difficult task
because another language may not have it in their language system to appropriately express
another culture. Culture is expressed in language and if taking language away from the culture
will also take away its greetings, songs, proverbs, cures, and its prayers (Fishman, 2007, p. 72).
Culture would not be valued as much as it is if so many aspects of it are taken away. Language
with culture makes it have a more authentic feeling and connects it to the ancestral past and

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history. Culture entails songs, rituals, and such that involves language since it is what ties
culture back centuries. There are all kinds of customs in every culture that is expressed with the
help of language, and so without language, the authenticity of how to carry out the customs will
be changed and the knowledge of how to carry it out will be lost. Customs and rituals are made
back when language was born, and to keep the tradition of them, there need for language is
necessary since language carries the history of the people and culture. I cannot imagine chants in
a Hawaiian culture that are sung in another language besides Hawaiian. Culture and language
must have the same origin and be expressed through their language.
When languages die, you start to become less diverse, but the world needs diversity.
With diversity, there are more ways of understanding concepts with the use of different
languages. For instance, there are proverb sayings in many languages that have different
meanings and be understood differently. There is an agreement that ecological diversity is a
good thing, and that its preservation should be fostered (Crystal, 2002, p. 32). In the ecosystem,
different organisms live and work in harmony to maintain a balance and if one organism is left
out or becomes extinct, the whole ecosystem becomes unbalanced. Crystal states that, the
cultural as well as the biological domains are brought into a mutually reinforcing relationship
to link the structure and organization of a human community to interaction with its localized
environment (p. 33). Think of languages as living, breathing entities that evolve, grow and
change due to the environment and in relation to other languages. There will be an imbalance if
there were to be purely a monolingual world and in turn a loss of human knowledge.
Human knowledge is also lost with a language. An example is ethnobotany, the study of
indigenous plants. Among indigenous groups, they contain information on different medicinal
plants that cure illnesses and have knowledge on which plants contain certain characteristics.

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This knowledge will be lost if and when the last speakers of the language die. Who knows
whether or not a language that is already extinct had information that could cure ailments that are
still uncurable. There are languages that are passed on orally, there is no written form, and with
so few speakers of endangered languages around, the closer it is to losing valuable knowledge.
The Kpelle people of Liberia keep the knowledge of making tools and weapons out of
steel long before colonial contact brought advanced technology. This knowledge is transmitted
orally with no written record. These indigenous products are needed more than imported tools
because they are adapted to the indigenous peoples needs. However, colonial authorities put an
end to the indigenous technology out of fear of competition between import and production of
their weapons and the indigenous ones.
Another example of valuable knowledge is the complex irrigation system from Bali and
the calendar they go by to determine when to allow water to flow into the rice fields. Because
they rely heavily on rice farms, proper irrigation and distribution of water flow onto the farms is
paramount to living. They maintained their systems for many years and worked excellent for
them. But because of modernizing times, changes to their irrigation system were implemented
by the government. These changes did not work for the better, but for the worse. During the
rainy season, fields had great amount of water available, but during the dry season, water supply
was unpredictable and the pests that were kept at bay without the use of pesticides before the
changes, had invited huge populations of them to enter the fields. To fight the outbreak of pests,
pesticides were eventually used and polluted the soil and water resources, which damaged the
island even more.
These examples mentioned just come to show that indigenous human knowledge is very
useful and intricate and must value minority languages. With their knowledge, they do not need

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to rely on outside influences and sources since they are able to do well, even better, than them.
Newer and more modern is not always better. Sometimes older styles work and are sufficient
enough to get by in life. The older styles carry the knowledge of the past and can evolve it
themselves, rather than having outsiders do it for them when they do not know firsthand the
process of such things.
The sum of human wisdom is not contained in any one language, and no single language
is capable of expressing all forms and degrees of human comprehension (Crystal, 2002, p. 53).
This tie in with my previous statement about how a culture cannot be adequately expressed in
another language besides its own language. No single language can express or explain the
different pragmatics of another culture, and so we need to maintain all the human wisdom
available now, for future generations. As languages die, so do the sources of data for scientists,
linguists, and historians will need for research. There are new discoveries still being made about
languages and can still learn from them.
IV. What Can Be Done
Literacy must be developed because it creates access to communication across time and
space (Fishman, 2007, p. 78). We are able to write, read, and talk through literacy even when
there are no people in our immediate surroundings to converse with. For instance, writing and
reading to people who are no longer alive or yet to be born is possible. Many people who are
about to have a baby read aloud to it so it can hear peoples voices. In order to have literacy to
maintain endangered languages, they must be adequately recorded, through audio or video and
print, before it is lost entirely. Manx had recordings of native speakers and later developed
dictionaries and grammar books to use in schools.

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Increasing the status of low-status languages so there are positive outlooks on it will
encourage families to raise their children bilingual in the high and low status languages and the
children will also be encouraged to learn them. By having awareness-raising programs that show
the benefits of raising bilingual children and speaking the low-status language. In Wales,
pamphlets were given to bilingual parents that presented the benefits of knowing Welsh and
English.
Awareness by itself is not enough to change anything. The low-status language needs to
be heard in the public society through the media, newspapers, and other works printed in the
language. Manx, on the Isle of Man, is heard on the radio, seen in newspapers, and books.
Websites are also available in Manx or contain information about the language and provides
language lessons, stories, and the like. Companies use Manx notices and websites that are
written in Manx and English to make known their Manx identity and to have better relations with
the local community.
Involving communities to increase speakers and raise the status is a start. Mutsun, a
Native American language, is a scattered community with no native speakers living. Heritage
language learners started the movement toward revitalization of their language. There were no
audio recordings, but they had extensive written documentation available to start with.
Designating committed language learners to each scattered community will allow them to
become the teacher and hold language and culture workshops. Learning materials are also
available individually or in small groups, which do not require a fluent teacher present. The little
things can go a long way, such as introducing games and songs will gather more learners that
teachers have provided. These activities are fun and effective in getting the communities more
involved in learning and are played by children and adults together. Although it is still unsure

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how successful revitalizing it will be, it is still a big step towards success with access to available
resources to their language and culture compared to when the movement began.
V. Conclusion
There are external and internal factors that contribute to language endangerment, one
being natural disasters, which displace and kill indigenous people, and negative attitudes towards
the indigenous language. Natural disasters cannot be helped because it is a natural phenomenon,
but turning the negative attitude to positive ones by creating jobs to use the language will show
the benefits of knowing the indigenous language. Assimilation does not necessarily have to
drastic negative effects on a community. The community should promote bilingualism and think
of their language in a positive aspect, such as fostering family ties, maintaining social
relationships, preserving historical links (Crystal, 2002). Rather than having a powerful group
overrun a minority group and do away with its practices and way of life, they need to work
together to make a hybrid culture and language. Allowing indigenous people have a voice in
decisions towards development will benefit everyone. People tend to think that indigenous
groups ideas and practices are out-dated and need to be changed to fit and survive in modern
times, but what makes them think it is their right to fix them. Rather than fix, both groups
need to come to an understanding and work together so everyone can gain something from
changes, rather than just one group.
Different actions are taking place to revive languages and it will have a head start if there
are recordings of native speakers, which professors and linguists were able to do for Manx and
Mutsun, which led to dictionaries and development of grammar books and textbooks used in
schools. The school environment is not the only way to promote the language. On the Isle of
Man, there are Manx and English radio broadcasts available. The use of media will increase the

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use of language in radio broadcasts and newspapers and will help people with receptive skills
outside the classroom. The community has a role in promoting the language, as in the example
of Mutsun. Heritage language learners started the beginning of revitalizing their language since
no native speakers existed. From their start grew more development of language learning tools
It is a daunting future if what scholars are saying about the amount of languages that will
be left in the next century or so. That is one step closer to becoming a monolingual nation,
which leads to lesser creativity and diversity. But there is a need for all the languages available.
Culture, diversity, knowledge, and identity are lost with a language, which are important in life.
The world can only gain by having more languages around, with different cultures and
knowledge available to research and study more. There are a lot more discoveries to be made
with the diverse languages available to dive in to.

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References
Ager, S. (2009). A Study of Language Death and Revival with a Particular Focus on Manx
Gaelic.
Baker, C. (2011). Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism (5th ed.). Bristol, UK:
Multilingual Matters.
Berlin, L.N. (2000). The Benefits of Second Language Acquisition and Teaching for Indigenous
Language Educators. Journal of American Indian Education, 39(3), 1-24.
Crystal, D. (2002). Language Death. West Nyack, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Fishman, J.A. (2007). What do you lose when you lose your language? In G. Cantoni (Ed.),
Stabilizing Indigenous Languages (pp.71-81). Flagstaff, AZ: Northern Arizona
University.
Nettle, D., Romaine, S. (2000). Vanishing Voices: The Extinction of the Worlds Languages.
Cary, NC: Oxford University Press.
Romaine, S. (2006). Planning for the Survival of Linguistic Diversity. Language Policy, 4,
441-473.
Warner, N., Luna, Q., Butler, L., van Volkinburg, H. (2009). Revitalization in a scattered
language community: Problems and methods from the perspective of Mutsun language
revitalization. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 198, 135-148.
Wilson, G. N. (2008). The Revitalization of the Manx Language and Culture in an Era of Global
Change.

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