Image source: The Day (n.d.)
Namaste, Ce mai faci?, Guten Tag!, Ciao, Bonjour, nǐ hǎo and ¡Hola! are some of the beautiful ways people around the globe greet one another. Language is an expression of art, a means of communication, and an important asset to diversity. However, one would be hard-pressed to find a native speaker of Livonian for which to say Tēriņtš! This is because Livonian has recently become extinct (CharterBerlin, 2013). The loss of Livonian and other languages is concerning for many reasons, one of which is the narrowing of diversity.
Diversity within a group is the differences among the individual people (Pennsylvania State University, 2017). Additionally, diversity has two parts: surface level and deep level (Harrison, Price, and Bell, 1998 as cited in The Pennsylvania State University, 2017). Language is an asset to diversity as it presents value to both the surface and deep levels of diversity (Cisneros, 1997).
Moreover, diversity is important for organizations in a globalized world (Why is diversity so important, n.d.). Subsequently, endangered languages could pose a threat to the quality of diversity. The criteria for endangerment status of language is one that it is likely to lose any remaining speakers within the next century (Woodbury, n.d.). This brings me back to wonder: is a narrowing of diversity to blame for the endangerment of languages?
According to Woodbury (n.d.), the answer is yes, the increase in creating a globalized society does impact the decline of minority languages. For example, when the decline of native speakers of a minority language reaches vital lows, then the people who possess a deep-level diversity with the language will tend to experience a sense defeat. Moreover, the rise in popularity of mainstream regional language—such as English and Spanish—lead minority-language speakers to feel pressured to assimilate. Overtime, this leads to fewer native speakers of the minority-language and a disconnect with the heritage of the language.
The initiative of globalization is affecting diversity, including the variety of languages. Yet, 49% of respondents feel there should be a single, global language (Should there be one global language, n.d.). Although, per Woodbury (n.d.), if the world ever became mono-linguistic, it would take tens-of-thousands of years to recreate differences within and between groups that could ever resemble the kind of diversity we have right now. Subsequently, diversity—as an entity—could become endangered itself. This idea suggests that the importance of preserving language and diversity stretches far beyond organizational reasons. It seems that the overpowering of minority languages could eventually impact the entire global dynamic.
On the other hand, there is something that can be done about this rapid loss of language (The Day, n.d.). For instance, people could preserve endangered languages by studying and creating records of them. In addition, communities could establish support systems to instill the value of different languages in students (Woodbury, n.d.). Perhaps, through preserving language, one would be preserving diversity.
Reference
CharterBerlin, D. (2013, June 5). Death of a language: last ever speaker of Livonian passes away aged 103. Retrieved January 27, 2017, from http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/europe/article3782596.ece?CMP=OTH-gnws-standard-2013_06_05
The Pennsylvania State University (2017). Retrieved January 26, 2017, from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1826457/modules/items/21654095
Cisneros, H. G. (1997). Retrieved January 26, 2017, from http://www.pbs.org/ampu/cisneros.html
Why is diversity so important (n.d.). Retrieved January 26, 2017, from https://www.reference.com/world-view/diversity-important-32cd76d567ddff1c
Woodbury, A. C. (n.d.). Linguistic Society of America. What is an Endangered Language? Retrieved January 26, 2017, from http://www.linguisticsociety.org/content/what-endangered-language
Harrison, D. A., Price, K. H., & Bell, M. P. (1998). Beyond relational demography: Time and the effects of surface- and deep-level diversity on work group cohesion. Academy of Management Journal, 41, 96–107.
Should there be one global language? (n.d.). Retrieved January 27, 2017, from http://www.debate.org/opinions/should-there-be-one-global-language
The Day (n.d.). Modern tech saves ancient tongues from extinction. Retrieved January 26, 2017, from http://theday.co.uk/health/modern-tech-saves-ancient-tongues-from-extinction
Your blog post was a very interesting micro-education in the diversity of languages. Perhaps I have an un-popular viewpoint but I don’t believe that diversity will be endangered due to the decline/loss of minority languages though I know there is much discussion to support the idea. The point noted in the post, “if the world ever became mono-linguistic, it would take tens-of-thousands of years to recreate differences within and between groups that could ever resemble the kind of diversity we have right now.” (Woodbury, n. d.). Certainly it would be nearly impossible to revert back to the complexities of the various languages that exist today if we did become a mono-linguistic world but as far as endangering diversity as a whole (or entity), the depths of diversity we experience today would be perhaps lessened but I have a hard time understanding how diversity as a whole could be endangered when there are seemingly endless ways this world is diverse.
Woodbury, A. C. (n.d.). Linguistic Society of America. What is an Endangered Language? Retrieved January 26, 2017, from http://www.linguisticsociety.org/content/what-endangered-language
I was completely floored by some of the statistics presented in diagram you provided with your blog post. This information certainly presents some interesting dilemmas concerning how much effort should we (as a global society) put into saving these disappearing languages? This week’s lesson commentary (PSU WC, 2017) explains the importance of embracing diversity, saying “incorporating that diversity not only is a basic human rights issue, but it also can improve organizational functioning through encouraging creative problem solving and reaching new markets”, but does that inclusion come at the cost of losing the very cultural habits (like one’s language) we want to embrace? As we become more homogenized (as a global society) in order to create efficiencies (like the spread of the English language to make conducting international business easier), are we complicit in the decline of cultural practices that define and separate one culture from another?
Your blog post argues “yes” to my questions posed, that a side-effect of globalization is indeed the erosion of minority languages which in turn erodes the cultural identity of those minority language speakers. You write “when the decline of native speakers of a minority language reaches vital lows, then the people who possess a deep-level diversity with the language will tend to experience a sense defeat” (Fritz, S., 2017), and with that sense of defeat comes assimilation. To combat the demise of these languages (and in turn their accompanying heritages) you posit that “people could preserve endangered languages by studying and creating records of them. In addition, communities could establish support systems to instill the value of different languages in students” (Fritz, S., 2017). While I personally feel this is a noble and responsible idea, the devil’s advocate in me asks, is this cultural erosion in line with the natural order of human evolution? Are we predisposed to abandon ideas that aren’t useful or necessary for our future as a species, or is assimilation (and the abandoning of cultural heritages) a potential weakness as a lack of diversity allows for an easy destruction (at least biologically speaking)?
References
Fritz, S. (2017). Endangered languages and diversity. OLEAD 410: leadership cultural blog. Retrieved January 28, 2017 from http://sites.psu.edu/global/author/sqf5216/
PSU WC (2017). Lesson 3 Commentary: Introduction to Diversity. Retrieved January 28, 2017 from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1826457/modules/items/21654093
I love this post.
I just never realized that languages would die. Of course it makes perfect sense as erh5149 says; It’s happened before, but it’s not something that you ever give a lot of thought to.
Evolution works that way, we adapt, and we grow, and our bodies change with each generation. So clearly, language itself is an evolution.
But, Do you think that as we evolution and lose languages that the entire planet would speak one human language?
“Indigenous people, now known as First Nations’ people, have either lost or are in grave danger of losing any working knowledge of their mother tongue.” (Thurman, 2015)
Is the human race doomed to loose it’s diversity over the evolution of our race? Is diversity something we shouldn’t worry about? Should we push further and faster into the future and solve the issues of racism by just becoming one united voice in one language? I don’t even think that language would be English, but something new, borne out of every single language left.
That would be unfortunate in many ways, but unifying in others.
The sad part of this entire post is that I love stories, I love sitting with a good book, and learning about new worlds, new ideas, new cultures. There are potentially hundreds of lost stories, each time we lose a language.
References
Thurman, J. (2015). A LOSS FOR WORDS: Can a dying language be saved? The New Yorker. Retrieved from http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/03/30/a-loss-for-words
Your post has an interesting point about diversity. Some of the facts on the chart presented are surprising. It is hard to comprehend that every two weeks a language disappears, and 18 other languages have only about one remaining speaker! While it is beneficial to understand and integrate our cultural differences, we also lose the uniqueness of each culture and become a monoculture. Not only are we losing the surface-level diversity, of speaking a difference language, but we are also losing the deep-level diversity of the cultural differences languages can involve. (PSU, 2017). It is hard to imagine a whole language and with it, an entire culture dying, but if it happened to the Romans and Latin, I guess it is not that unbelievable.
References:
Pennsylvania State University, World Wide Campus (2017). OLEAD 410 Lesson 3: Diversity.