The Silver Lining of Language Loss

Abstract

Just as zoologists and botanists are concerned about the extinction of biological species, linguists are concerned about the rapid loss of languages [“What's lost when languages are,” A. Pires, Books et al. , 23 April, p. [431][1], review of ([ 1 ][2])]. We should, however, view the situation from the user's standpoint as well. In this modern and connected world, we cannot fully realize our potential unless we understand, speak, and write the language of our school, media, government, place of employment, and economic centers of power. If our mother language does not provide these connections (and most languages do not), one alternative is bilingualism or multilingualism, but many people are not able or willing to attain fluency in more than one language. The problem thus becomes a political one: Either the speakers of such a language maintain the autonomy and capability to promote enduring bilingualism, as the Catalans did, or the language takes the path toward extinction, as is happening to Occitan, Yiddish, and the native languages of North America. We may, as outsiders, deplore such an evolution, but language is a practical tool. We do not advocate returning to the steam engine, the slide rule, or the logarithmic table. The drastic reduction of the number of languages is natural, unavoidable, and—from the viewpoint of communication and integration into a world community—desirable. ![Figure][3] Losing languages. The number of Yiddish speakers is dwindling. CREDIT: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS 1. [↵][4] 1. K. David Harrison , When Languages Die: The Extinction of the World's Languages and the Erosion of Human Knowledge (Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 2008). [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.1163922 [2]: #ref-1 [3]: pending:yes [4]: #xref-ref-1-1 View reference 1 in text