ГЛОБАЛІЗАЦІЯ І ПРОБЛЕМИ ЗБЕРЕЖЕННЯ МОВНОГО РОЗМАЇТТЯ

Abstract

Globalization modernizes developed national languages, but accelerates the decline of «small» languages. The number of the latter is decreasing dangerously, and at an increasingly rapid pace. Оf the current 7,000 languages, the vast majority will not survive to the end of the 21st century. 150–200 languages (2–3% of the total) have a secure future. Among other things, languages fall into decay because they do not fulfil all the functions a standard language should fulfil. They are displaced from significant spheres of communication by more powerful languages. The less a language serves the socially significant spheres, the less often it is used, the faster it depreciates and decays. The traditional parameters of language vitality (number of speakers, the presence of writing and state status, standardization, areas of use, economic power) are now joined by another one — the presence of the language in the computer environment, its digital equipment. According to this criterion, languages are divided into three groups: 1) languages that have made the digital leap; 2) languages that have shown digital potential; 3) languages that have not overcome the digital threshold. Hence, their prospects in the 21st are evident. The greatest hopes for the preservation of the linguistic diversity are associated with the progress of machine translation technology. In the future, it will assume the function of an international language: enabling written and oral interaction of everyone with everyone without the need to know each other’s language. Improved machine translation is not only a convenience for speakers, but also a way to support multilingualism, a chance to preserve the numerous national languages. It can be expected that thanks to machine translation, the competition of languages for spheres of use will sharply weaken, instead their co-evolution will begin, that is, parallel, conflict-free development.