LIN200H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Sacred Language, Chemehuevi, Folk Taxonomy
LIN200 Lecture 11
November 23 2017
-in the next 100 years, we expect 50 percent of languages to die out
-when languages die, we lose
-linguistic knowledge (and thus, info about the human brain)
-folk taxonomy
-ex. scientifically, tomatoes are fruits, but culturally, they are treated as
vegetables
-knowledge that is separate from strict western science knowledge
-ex. the kallawaya have knowledge of 10 000 plants that are unknown to
western science
-different ways of looking at the world and knowledge about the world
unknown to western science
EGIDS
-ranges from 0-10
-how likely a language is to die out
-0 would be English and Mandarin, robust languages used on an international level
-9=dormant: people identify culturally, but there are not native speakers. In theory, it
could still be revived because there is motivation to do it
-crucial level is between 6b and 7, this basically decides whether a languages survives
-distinguish between natural evolution of a language (Latin for example, is no longer
spoken, but it’s dialects are)
-so speakers of french, spanish, italian can still trace a continuous unbreaking
chain back to their ancestors who spoke latin
-in the context of language endangerment, we wouldn’t call Latin a dead language
-chemeheuvi, on the other hand, just dies out
-an example of a dormant language would be Hebrew in the 19th century—there were
no native speakers but there was a strong cultural association
Revitalitaion: trying to reverse language endangerment
-welsh, irish gaelic, and navajo are examples of revitalized languages
-these languages still had native speakers, and through government efforts, schools
were required to teach the language
-by installing it in an official capacity, people are forced to care a bit
-a really notable success was Hebrew, which died out as a native language around the
300 AD
-however, it was still a hugely important religious and cultural language: used in religion
and rituals
-it was very restricted in its use, only used for religious purposes
-until the 1800s, it was just a liturgical language
-in the late 1800s-early 1900s, there was an increase in immigration to what is now
Israel of jews from different parts of the world
-these jews spoke different languages
-a bunch of people who had a very serious strong cultural bond with each other who
spoke different languages and also spoke hebrew
-thus Hebrew began to be used as an every day language as opposed to just a religious
language
-Eliezer Ben-Yehuda played a large role in Hebrew’s success
-believed it was crucial the Hebrew be revived, led a massive effort to get this to happen
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
