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Vanishing tongues and success stories from around the world

Adam McDowell, National Post

23 January 2009 - The task First Nations language activists have undertaken is nothing short of defying a multi-century trend that has seen minority languages wither and disappear in a competition against the languages of empires past and present. English, Spanish, Russian and others can bully minority languages into oblivion through social and economic pressure, assimilationist educational policies, the effect of the mass media and other factors.

Of the world's 7,000 languages, linguists believe as many as half are in danger of disappearing during the 21st century, and many of those will go silent before ever being recorded for posterity.

VANISHING TONGUES AROUND THE WORLD

United Kingdom

Rather different fates have befallen the four members of the Celtic language family native to the island of Great Britain and the Isle of Man: Cornish went extinct as a community language in the late 18th century, while Ned Maddrell, the last speaker of Manx, died in 1974. Scots Gaelic has fewer than 60,000 speakers and is in decline.
Welsh, meanwhile, has a healthy community of at least 500,000 speakers.

U.S.A.

SIL International lists 67 U.S. indigenous languages and dialects as "nearly extinct,"
typically meaning their communities have been reduced to a small number of elderly speakers. Revitalization programs are generally not as developed in the U.S. as they are in Canada.

Australia

A linguistic catastrophe is unfolding Down Under: Dozens of aboriginal languages are down to their last few speakers. According to a 2005 government report calling the situation "very grave," of roughly 145 aboriginal languages believed to survive today, all but 18 can be expected to go extinct without urgent intervention.

South America

As in North America and Australia, dozens of indigenous languages face extinction here; poor documentation of remaining languages exacerbates the problem in South America.

SUCCESS STORIES

Maori (New Zealand)

According to Statistics New Zealand, 130,482 people speak Maori today thanks to revitalization efforts since the 1970s, representing a stunning comeback from a low of 50,000 around a century ago.

Hawaiian (U.S.A.)

Like Maori, often cited by Canadian language activists as a positive example of language revitalization. While under 0.1% of the population of Hawaii speaks the language natively, around 1,500 students are enrolled at any given time in Hawaiian immersion programs.

Hebrew (Israel)

Hebrew famously went from being the language of the Jewish religion, in use for centuries only in ceremonial contexts, to being the first language of millions of people. Its resurrection went hand-in-hand with the Zionist movement and was cemented by the founding of the modern state of Israel in 1948.

Irish (Ireland)

Nationalist efforts to restore Irish (also known as Gaelic) to use in daily life, similar to those in Israel, have failed to extend it beyond a community of perhaps 20,000 native speakers. However, generations of Irish students have learned the language at school, and the government intends to make the country a "bilingual society" by 2026.

Source: National Post

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