Language and its importance.
Language is the medium of communication between two entities, be it human, animals or birds. It has been around in the universe since million years and has survived innumerable natural calamities, races becoming extinct and evolved in to what millions of people speak today.
Language like any other entity like animals, birds, reptiles, and landforms, sometimes disappear into the dark permanently. Like the many forms of reptiles that are extinct, many birds that are no more seen in any part of the world; languages are also facing a threat and many of them are permanently lost.
What makes languages so important to all of us that it's death is considered to be a huge loss to mankind? and what does it take to save a language from the gallows of death?
Importance of Language
Language as we all know is the essence of life. Can you imagine a time period of even an hour where you don't speak to anyone or don't hear someone speak? It is hard. All social beings communicate with each other through a language. Language is, through which we express our feelings, thoughts, emotions and ideas to others. Every human enters this beautiful world of language during their infant years, as early as 2 years and live with it till we depart from this world. Language endorses our culture, heritage and identity and represents every individual's ideals.
Language has its spell on our social, economical, political and educational system. An individual can make a remarkable mark in his both personal and professional life if he is capable of communicating in multiple languages. We are surrounded by people from all parts of the world and speak different languages. If we want to have a cordial relation with them and live in harmony, we need to pick up their language and help them learn ours. Effective conversations occur when a common language is acting between people and there is a comfort level existing in such occasions.
For better understanding of the importance of a common language and style, let us see how outsourcing and Call Centres developed in India a decade ago? When companies understood that the problem was absence of common language and more importantly the style it is spoken, they decided that employees in India be trained to speak American English in their accent, so as not to affect the business between the parent and the outsourced company.
Globalization and Relocation of people are two important factors that have contributed to this issue. Booming Employment opportunities in some parts of the world, especially in countries like Asia, china, Australia attracts thousands of people to migrate to these countries and make it their second home, or more appropriately their home. From all these what we understand is, languages are not only essential to communicate with people but play a very important role in Social, Political, Economical and Cultural forum of a nation.
Reasons for the death of a language
(Source http://www.davidcrystal.com/DC_articles/Langdeath15.pdf)
Criticality of the matter:
I read this interesting column while I was researching on this topic on the internet and I would like to share it with you all. Bruce Connell was a linguist working in the Mambila region of Cameroon, West Africa during the late 1995. He came across a man by the name of Bogon, who spoke Kasabe language. What was worth noting here is, this man was the last living speaker of this language. As Connell did not had much time to dig deep into this language and it's history in that trip, he decided to come back next year and proceed with this. He returned a year after to the same place, only to find that Bogon had died on November 4th. He took along with him, Kasabe.
Source http://www.davidcrystal.com/DC_articles/Langdeath15.pdf
The critical nature of this issue is very well understood from this illustration.
How to keep a language alive?
According to a survey conducted by UNESCO, of the 7000+ languages that are prevailing in the world at present, more than half will disappear by the end of this century. That's a very alarming rate and hence a cause of concern to the world.
At individual level, what one can do to keep a language alive?
Google's ENDANGERED LANGUAGES PROJECT
Technology giant Google has initiated ENDANGERED LANGUAGES PROJECT, an initiative to preserve the languages which are at the verge of extinction. This is like a forum of people who are working on similar projects, to come together and share their work, resources and evidences. With the latest technology aids from Google, people are able to connect, share and work as a team towards this good cause. Many organizations have shown interest to associate themselves in this cause and save languages from dying.
More information about this can be found at
http://googleblog.blogspot.in/2012/06/endangered-languages-project-supporting.html
Perishing languages are a great threat to mankind, as serious as Global Warming or Population Explosion. It is time we understand the cause and effects of this problem and contribute individually towards identifying such languages and preserving them. When we think about this at the root level, it all settles down to every individual speaking in their native language and passing on the same to their next generation and so on. This is a measure we have to take to make sure that our language does not meet the same fate as those that have become extinct.
Language is the medium of communication between two entities, be it human, animals or birds. It has been around in the universe since million years and has survived innumerable natural calamities, races becoming extinct and evolved in to what millions of people speak today.
Language like any other entity like animals, birds, reptiles, and landforms, sometimes disappear into the dark permanently. Like the many forms of reptiles that are extinct, many birds that are no more seen in any part of the world; languages are also facing a threat and many of them are permanently lost.
What makes languages so important to all of us that it's death is considered to be a huge loss to mankind? and what does it take to save a language from the gallows of death?
Importance of Language
Language as we all know is the essence of life. Can you imagine a time period of even an hour where you don't speak to anyone or don't hear someone speak? It is hard. All social beings communicate with each other through a language. Language is, through which we express our feelings, thoughts, emotions and ideas to others. Every human enters this beautiful world of language during their infant years, as early as 2 years and live with it till we depart from this world. Language endorses our culture, heritage and identity and represents every individual's ideals.
Language has its spell on our social, economical, political and educational system. An individual can make a remarkable mark in his both personal and professional life if he is capable of communicating in multiple languages. We are surrounded by people from all parts of the world and speak different languages. If we want to have a cordial relation with them and live in harmony, we need to pick up their language and help them learn ours. Effective conversations occur when a common language is acting between people and there is a comfort level existing in such occasions.
For better understanding of the importance of a common language and style, let us see how outsourcing and Call Centres developed in India a decade ago? When companies understood that the problem was absence of common language and more importantly the style it is spoken, they decided that employees in India be trained to speak American English in their accent, so as not to affect the business between the parent and the outsourced company.
Globalization and Relocation of people are two important factors that have contributed to this issue. Booming Employment opportunities in some parts of the world, especially in countries like Asia, china, Australia attracts thousands of people to migrate to these countries and make it their second home, or more appropriately their home. From all these what we understand is, languages are not only essential to communicate with people but play a very important role in Social, Political, Economical and Cultural forum of a nation.
Reasons for the death of a language
- Small communities speaking a native language, living in remote locations are more likely to vanish without a trace, due to any natural calamity like Earthquake, Floods or starvation etc. In such situations the associated language dies with them. With the death of a language, a culture, a heritage and valuable knowledge is lost to the world.
- Cultural Movements- Some of the large cultural movements which took place as early as some 500 years ago, spread few languages only, around the world. The one language that we all consider to be the culprit is English. But the truth is, English is not the only such language but there are many. In South America it was Spanish or Portuguese, in Northern Asia it was Russia.
(Source http://www.davidcrystal.com/DC_articles/Langdeath15.pdf)
- Language should be passed on from parents to children and in turn to grandchildren. This is the first and foremost thing we have to do as a responsible citizen. We should compulsorily teach our children, both to read and write in their mother tongue, however sparsely it is used at school or work place.
- When we migrate from one country to another or from a continent to another, we have to be responsible enough to guard our language like it is a prized possession. In the adventure of learning a new language, we should not kill our language because it is the reason for our existence and it upholds our true self.
Criticality of the matter:
I read this interesting column while I was researching on this topic on the internet and I would like to share it with you all. Bruce Connell was a linguist working in the Mambila region of Cameroon, West Africa during the late 1995. He came across a man by the name of Bogon, who spoke Kasabe language. What was worth noting here is, this man was the last living speaker of this language. As Connell did not had much time to dig deep into this language and it's history in that trip, he decided to come back next year and proceed with this. He returned a year after to the same place, only to find that Bogon had died on November 4th. He took along with him, Kasabe.
Source http://www.davidcrystal.com/DC_articles/Langdeath15.pdf
The critical nature of this issue is very well understood from this illustration.
How to keep a language alive?
According to a survey conducted by UNESCO, of the 7000+ languages that are prevailing in the world at present, more than half will disappear by the end of this century. That's a very alarming rate and hence a cause of concern to the world.
At individual level, what one can do to keep a language alive?
- Pass the language to your next generation and nurture the responsibility in them to do the same, downstream.
- Encourage your children to learn his mother tongue and write in it too.
- Recognise the Educational Institution which emphasises on teaching in local language and encourage your children to attend such schools.
- Carry your identity with you till the end by upholding your language which ever part of the world you are in. Encourage your neighbourhood to learn your language and in turn you learn theirs. Knowing multiple languages has not harmed anyone but in turn adds to your dignity.
- It is equally important to learn to write in your language because that's how a language flourishes. Written documents can be passed on for hundreds of years and can be a valuable source for later generations. We must remember how great epics and our history is still alive, centuries after it's occurrence due to the written documents that are existing even now.
Google's ENDANGERED LANGUAGES PROJECT
Technology giant Google has initiated ENDANGERED LANGUAGES PROJECT, an initiative to preserve the languages which are at the verge of extinction. This is like a forum of people who are working on similar projects, to come together and share their work, resources and evidences. With the latest technology aids from Google, people are able to connect, share and work as a team towards this good cause. Many organizations have shown interest to associate themselves in this cause and save languages from dying.
More information about this can be found at
http://googleblog.blogspot.in/2012/06/endangered-languages-project-supporting.html
Perishing languages are a great threat to mankind, as serious as Global Warming or Population Explosion. It is time we understand the cause and effects of this problem and contribute individually towards identifying such languages and preserving them. When we think about this at the root level, it all settles down to every individual speaking in their native language and passing on the same to their next generation and so on. This is a measure we have to take to make sure that our language does not meet the same fate as those that have become extinct.
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