There are around 7,000 languages spoken in the world, but that number is shrinking. Unesco estimates that half could disappear by the end of the century. So how are languages lost, and what does that mean for the people who speak them?
There are around 7,000 languages spoken in the world, but that number is shrinking. Unesco estimates that half could disappear by the end of the century. So how are languages lost, and what does that mean for the people who speak them?
First, want to note that I’m not arguing for anything like the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, I don’t think that language can really change your cognition, though it clearly has some affect on social organisation.
While this may seem true in a sort of logical, definitional sense (one cannot construct a symbolic method for determining a person’s interests, given their language, or vice versa). It’s not true in a connectionist sense. The human brain picks up on associations between everything, and one of those associations is language-&-behaviour. In my experience people will often prefer people with similar socio-linguistic signifiers. One might call it irrational, but I’m not sure I would label it that, when there really is a probabilistic link between language and political alignment. Though, If you speak a prestige dialect you may not have experienced this, I would encourage you to keep your eyes open for it.
I’m not 100% sure what you mean by developed, as this is a notoriously difficult to define word. However if you’re talking about technological development, as in, the ability of the culture to impose its will over reality, then yes I would agree. I didn’t intend to make any moral statements in my original post. Note however, that if the goal of the people of the culture is (axiomatically), to retain their culture & language, then assimilating is not an effective way to achieve that goal, even if it grants them access to more effective tools.
I would really encourage you to do some reading, if you look at the historical record, this is something that happens frequently, though it comes and goes throughout different periods. A few examples.
But again, it’s not binary. Language differences are not sufficient to prevent imperial influence, but decrease the probability of effective power projection. They also interlink with other factors i.e. cultural & religious differences often cause communities to resist external rule, and language mediates the spread of those ideas.
I’ve heard this so often from anthropologists, and it annoys the hell out of me. One obvious measure would be literacy, another would be life expectancy. These are generally improved through science, if a culture fails to leverage science and wealth to improve such measures, the science is void, and the culture remains less developed compared to a competing society that does. It’s one of the things that really annoy me about anthropologists, that they haven’t made clear guidelines to measure quality and level of a culture. It’s like it’s considered racism to argue that one society can be less developed, when it’s a fact that there are differences in development today and historically.
For instance if a tribe in the rain forest is 100% illiterate and only has 30 year life expectancy, then by all sensible definitions that’s a poorly developed culture. That does not mean they don’t have other forms of culture, because they are born with the same potentials we are. But they haven’t evolved their culture or society to improve life conditions like we have done over hundreds of years of building on prior knowledge.
That’s the kind of examples I meant, but if they cooperated, they weren’t conquered, they joined together as the Roman Empire. Back then ordinary citizens had no influence on such matters. It was decided by the ruling class which was very separate even from rich people like merchants or bankers.
Yes I’ve also heard for my own country (Denmark) that in medieval times royalty and nobility barely spoke Danish, they spoke German or French. They still went to war against each other, and I don’t really see how it supports your point?
That was late 19th century, and they tried to make Bosnians practically change nationality, that’s a near impossible thing to do, especially over a short time-span. As a counter to that, I could mention countries that united despite different languages like Canada with English and French, and Switzerland that has no less than 3 languages, and of course China that has many languages, 7 main language groups and hundreds spoken by small minorities. This has not prevented China from becoming the worlds most populous country, and remaining pretty stable as a country through centuries.
Decolonization had nothing to do with language, it happened mostly because of WW2 that weakened the colonial powers. Also it was of course the right thing to do, although I’m very uncertain that was much of a factor. But today colonization is absolutely seen as immoral if it’s against the will of the local population.
Not really IMO, it’s more if it’s a common language, it is more seen as a family country, and the occupied country is treated better and possibly integrated. While with different languages, the occupied territory will generally be seen as 2nd rate and be discriminated against.
Just as many other countries we (Denmark) have a German speaking minority, and in Germany there’s a Danish speaking minority. Historically the border has moved both ways to get these minorities home on both sides. But after WW2 a border was finally mutually agreed upon, and today those minorities are protected on both sides.
So having different languages is as much the cause for war, as it prevents that and oppression as you claim. Are the Danes near the border oppressed by Denmark because we got some territory back after WW2? Of course they aren’t that claim is ridiculous! But that’s an easy interpretation of your claim.
But thanks for explaining your view, and although I don’t agree I understand your point better.
The idea that literacy and life-expectancy are signs of a more “developed” country is essentially just racist colonialist propaganda.
Many cultures worldwide have traditionally transmitted knowledge orally, and their societies were built around this, with lots of in-person meetings to disseminate information. If a person speaks their traditional language and is well-versed in their traditional culture, but does not read or write (because they don’t need to), then by the standard of literacy they will be deemed as less “developed” than some 4-chan troglodyte.
Likewise, life expectancy past a certain age is kind of a ridiculous metric. People seriously believe that the longer you can stay geriatric, the more “developed” your country is.
Meanwhile, metrics like knowledge of botanical medicine or percentage of communal land ownership are often left out of these scoreboards of “development”. Things that can materially improve people’s lives are only seen as having value when non-Indigenous people do them. It is racism through and through.
So no culture ever among thousands are more developed than others, is that it?
How would you tally up the score of “development”?
If the score depends, essentially, on racist ideas of how human societies should look, valorizing old people who can read as the epitome of human achievement, then I think it should be dismissed.
And more than that, I think the entire game of defining a single consolidated “development score” is laughable at best. We can measure stats individually, and consider them in their own right. Any attempt to weight the individual scores to contribute to a total score is going to depend heavily on the judge’s personal values. There is no value-neutral way to do it.
You may feel strongly that certain cultures are more developed than others, but that is based on the stats that you value. Even if you base it on data in some way, you are basing it on the data that states have bothered to gather, which almost always captures metrics that align with their priorities and views.
So how exactly is literacy racist? I wonder what convoluted logic leads to that conclusion.
Also how is health and life expectancy a racist measure? Isn’t living a long life in good health just about the most objectively good thing a society can achieve?
No those are stats EVERYBODY should value. Or maybe you won’t send your children to school because it has no actual value, and maybe you won’t allow your children healthy food and healthcare, because that’s just a racist idea?
I can see your answer is indeed that all cultures are equally developed, which is very obviously false. It’s like saying 1+1=1, and I can not have any respect for such a view.
It’s defeatist and it doesn’t help anything in any way.
How do we improve society, if all societies are equal? It’s nonsense!!!
By evaluating individual stats, not entire societies, and by letting societies determine what they value.
You don’t need to share other people’s values. But you have no right to determine what other people should value. Big colonizer energy from you.
That’s an oxymoron, societies are collectives of individuals. If you can evaluate4 on an individual, you can collect it to evaluate a society.
You are talking like culture is some sort of religion, where it’s all made up, and completely disconnected from evidence and reason.
So you maintain that good health and long life are just a subjective values?