LING1901 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Ethnologue, Habitat Destruction, Language Change
16 May 2018
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Wednesday, 17 August 2016
LING1901 LECTURE 6
THE THREAT OF GLOBAL LANGUAGES
-Prospects for the world’s languages
•How is the maintenance and further development of all existing spoken and written languages and sign
languages in the world looking like?
-Bleak
•The 16th edition of Ethnologue - the world’s most complete catalogue of languages lists 6909 “known living
languages” on its website
•UNESCO estimates that 96% of the world’s languages are spoken by only 4% of the world’s population
•Languages with the largest number of native speakers are today:
-Mandarin Chinese
-Spanish
-Hindi
-English
•At least some 4500 of the world’s spoken languages are indigenous
•UNESCO estimates that over 50% of about 6700 languages spoken today are in danger of disappearing
-Why are languages lost?
•Oppression and injustice
•Powerless economic and social position
•Habitat destruction through logging/mining
•Forced assimilation/migration to urban centres
-Ex/ Peru - need to adapt to using majority language, Spanish
•UNESCO: 90% of the world’s languages not represented on the internet
•UNESCO: 80% of African languages have no orthography
•“Formal education and media in dominant languages are the most important direct factors behind the
macroeconomic, techno-military, social and political causes of linguistic genocide” (Skutnabb-Kangas & Phillips
2010: 78)
-Dominant languages in the media are killing smaller languages
-The world in 2100
•Pessimistic/realistic estimates
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Document Summary
English: at least some 4500 of the world"s spoken languages are indigenous, unesco estimates that over 50% of about 6700 languages spoken today are in danger of disappearing. Why are languages lost: oppression and injustice, powerless economic and social position, habitat destruction through logging/mining, forced assimilation/migration to urban centres. Ex/ peru - need to adapt to using majority language, spanish: unesco: 90% of the world"s languages not represented on the internet, unesco: 80% of african languages have no orthography. Formal education and media in dominant languages are the most important direct factors behind the macroeconomic, techno-military, social and political causes of linguistic genocide (skutnabb-kangas & phillips. Dominant languages in the media are killing smaller languages. The world in 2100: pessimistic/realistic estimates. As little as 300 to 600 oral languages left as unthreatened languages passed on orally from the parent generation to their children.
