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Moves to save dying languages

Reporter: Nance Haxton

TRANSCRIPT

15 March 2004 - HAMISH ROBERTSON: According to UNESCO, more than half of the world's 6,000 languages are in danger of dying out, ranging from native American languages in the United States to Scottish Gaelic, which is now spoken by only 60,000 or so mostly elderly people.

Well, with growing concern about the rapid disappearance of so many languages around the world, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission is beginning a study of Aboriginal languages in Australia.

When white settlers first arrived here, it's estimated that more than 250 distinct Aboriginal languages were spoken. Today, that number has dropped to 15.

Nance Haxton reports from Adelaide.

NANCE HAXTON: It's been dubbed the growth of Mclanguage, the increasing global prevalence of the four super languages, English, Spanish, Chinese and Arabic at the sacrifice of all others.

In the past 100 years more than half of the world's languages have effectively disappeared.

ATSIC Commissioner Rodney Dillon says they hope any more Aboriginal languages going the same way by identifying which languages are endangered, that is spoken by less than 20 people.

RODNEY DILLON: Languages are in danger right across Australia, but it's not only about getting the language back, it's also about talking the language and having the kids talking the language, because if you get down to ten there's something wrong in that community. So we've got to see what's breaking that down. We've got to go, you know, not only do we have to measure but we have to figure out why it's been broke down further.

NANCE HAXTON: It's almost like the health of that language is an indication of the health of that community?

RODNEY DILLON: Yeah, that's what we're trying to measure.

NANCE HAXTON: The Pitjantjara choir from the isolated desert country in northern South Australia still sings in traditional language, but Pitjantjara is one of the few dialects in Australia still spoken by its entire community.

In Australia, one indigenous language is lost each year. If the trend is left unchecked, it is estimated by 2050 no indigenous languages will exist in any meaningful sense in Australia.

Mr Dillon says when a language ceases to be spoken much more is lost than words.

RODNEY DILLON: These languages is the oldest languages in the world. These are 50,000 and 60,000-year-old languages, you know. This is one of the most important projects that probably we'll be doing and it's important for Australia as well, you know, to be proud that they've held onto that or it's important that they don't lose it.

NANCE HAXTON: Indigenous band Waak Waak Jungi is on its own crusade to keep traditional languages spoken in a modern context.

Most of the band's songs are sung in the native tongue of the two song men from Arnhem Land, but they have also reconstructed songs from the extinct language of the Victorian Yarra Aboriginal people.

Band member Jimmy Djamunba says speaking their language is vital to keeping their culture alive.

JIMMY DJAMUNBA: Yes. Our making of life, give life, the language will be really alive, alright, because they have to translate singing, you know, singing and telling the story. Sometimes I talk with language, you know, this language, because back in Arnhem Land, I speak only in language, alright, I can teach young people with my language.

NANCE HAXTON: ATSIC Commissioner Rodney Dillon says they hope once the study details how many distinct languages are still spoken, they can develop strategies for their preservation, such as better teaching programs in schools.

RODNEY DILLON: The importance of our language is our way of life. It is who we are. It is how we identify who we are and I think when you lose your language you lose a lot. A lot of Aboriginal people have lost their language and are very unlucky not to have it and it's sad that we haven't got it because for one reason or another it's no longer there.

But what we're trying to do is to make sure that the people that have got their language, that their language stays strong and we not only preserve the language but we keep the language going, more people talk the language and the kids talking the language. We've had a break down in that.

HAMISH ROBERTSON: That was ATSIC Commissioner Rodney Dillon, ending that report by Nance Haxton in Adelaide.

Source: ABC

related links :

• New research centre to save 'lost languages'
  March 24, 2004 - Guardian (UK) - A language is lost every two weeks, according to the head of a new centre for research into endangered languages, which is being launched today. People are increasingly choosing to teach their children more commonly used languages in a bid to help them gain work in later life, their research says. As a result half of the 6,500 languages spoken around the world are anticipated to disappear in the next century - a rate of one every fortnight.
• Aborigines struggle to find a voice
  7 October 2002 - Guardian - Australia's native languages have drifted towards extinction and it could take generations to revive them, writes David Fickling
• When these two sisters die, a whole language will die with them
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• Dictionary gives hope to Aborigines
  13 July, 2001 -Telegraph (UK) - Aboriginal leaders have claimed that the inclusion of the phrase "stolen generation" in the latest edition of the Concise Oxford Dictionary amounts to international acknowledgment of their campaign for reparations.
• Demise of world’s vanishing languages
  June 2001 - Scotsman (UK) - There are 6,800 languages spoken in the world today, but, by the end of the century, up to 90 per cent of them could have disappeared.

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