The Place of Endangered Languages in a Global Society

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The Place of Endangered Languages in a Global Society
The Role of Language in a Present Society
Certainly, the role of language in the global scale is incredibly important. “Educators agree that the
study of foreign languages plays an important role in a school’s curriculum” (LaVaute). Moreover,
a person of 21st century should be aware about different cultures, conduct business with partners
from different corners of the earth, make friends or even be in love with a person from abroad, be
well-travelled constantly. Furthermore, new language studying process develops memory abilities,
creativity and listening skills. Language engineering increasing role in our present society is a topic
of a separate paper and is very closely connected with a language itself.
It is said that there are 5000 - 6000 languages spoken in the world today (some experts count
7000 languages). The question is about Endangered Languages. Some linguists believe that only
several hundred will be alive till the end of a century. The problem is with languages that do not
have many speakers in different countries. They are very much pressed, i.e. culturally,
economically, etc. Globalisation adds a lot, because the language of more powerful nation starts its
domination over the weaker one. Mondialisation is one more factor of influence. Sometimes
globalization and mondialisation are referred as synonyms but they present different socioeconomic aspects of a current world, each of which influence differently the endangered languages.
Mondialisation means universalisation, for example McDonald’s, Hollywood movies, music that
was disseminated all over the world and are used massively. As a result, the language of minority
becomes not so popularly and disappears with time. Such process threatens scientific problems. The
challenge is that “With the disappearance of unwritten and undocumented languages, humanity
would lose not only a cultural wealth but also important ancestral knowledge embedded, in 
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particular, in indigenous languages” (http://www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/endangeredlanguages/). Ethical problem arises as well in this case, because it looks like practically each
community would prefer to save their language, if they have positive circumstances and
opportunities to make it. The issue is that it is a kind of social unfairness, when one nation has many
chances to develop and communicate their native language and another does not have.
What is an Endangered Language? The Importance of Languages
Generally speaking, an endangered language is a language which speakers are dying or just do not
use it, exercising another language; or use it less, in fewer areas; when speakers do not use all
language’s styles; when they do not pass it to the next generation. There are several factors that
indicate an endangered language (according to UNESCO experts’ researches):
Intergenerational language transmission, Absolute number of speakers, Proportion of speakers
within the total population, Shifts in domains of language use, Response to new domains and
media, Availability of materials for language education and literacy, Governmental and
institutional language attitudes and policies including official status and use, Community
members’ attitudes toward their own language, Amount and quality of documentation”
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17081573).
“The extinction of whole families of languages is a tragedy comparable in magnitude to the loss of
whole branches of the animal kingdom (classes, orders, families), for example to the loss of all
felines or all cetaceans” (“About the Catalogue of the Endangered Languages of the World”).
Similar situation could be seen within the correlation between language science and medicines area.
“Seventy-five per cent of plant-derived pharmaceuticals were discovered by examining traditional
medicines, and the languages of curers often played a key role. If these languages had become
extinct and knowledge of the medicinal plants and associated cures had been lost in the process, all
of humanity would have been impoverished and our survival as a species left more precarious”
(“About the Catalogue of the Endangered Languages of the World”). It is possible to talk even 
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about human rights violation in this situation, i.e. if there is some kind of repressive regime, the
community is forced to use another language – a tongue of a stronger community. Here personal
losses and social identity crisis should be also taken into account, because a native language means
native speakers’ values, communications, relations, different kinds of well-being. That is why it is
so important to save a native tongue. This is the reason why so many linguists are shouting about
society and political problems when they understand that their native language is in danger. “About
the Ca