When Languages Die

When Languages Die

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When Languages Die
The Extinction of the World’s Languages and the Erosion of Human Knowledge K. David Harrison

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2007

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Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong KongKarachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam

Copyright © 2007 by K. David Harrison
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NewYork 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Pubication DataHarrison, K. David When languages die : the extinction of the world’s languages and the erosion of human knowledge / K. David Harrison. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13 978-0-19-518192-0 ISBN 0-19-518192-1 1. Language obsolescence. I. Title P40.5.L33H37 2007 417'.7—dc22 2006045308

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

For myparents, Catherine Hart and David M. Harrison

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Preface

The entire world needs a diversity of ethnolinguistic entities for its own salvation, for its greater creativity, for the more certain solution of human problems, for the constant rehumanization of humanity in the face of materialism, for fostering greater esthetic, intellectual, and emotionalcapacities for humanity as a whole, indeed, for arriving at a higher state of human functioning. —Joshua A. Fishman (1982)

hen ideas go extinct, we all grow poorer. The voices of the last speakers of many languages are now fading away, never to be heard again. Linguists like me, too few in number, rush to record these tongues, while a few native communities struggle to revive them. Some of these lastvoices will be preserved in archives, in print, or as digital recordings. Those last speakers who have generously shared their knowledge with others may see their ideas persist a bit longer, perhaps published in books like this one. Most ideas live on only in memory, and with the extinction of languages vanish forever. Why we should care about this? Isn’t it simply the natural order of things?Empires come and go, languages ebb and flow. Is any individual’s knowledge really so special? Can’t it be re-created later? What exactly is lost when a language, the most massive, complex constellation of ideas we know, ceases to be spoken? This book is my attempt to explain why language death matters. On a personal level, I have formed close personal friendships with the last speakers of manylanguages, and with their children and grandchildren. I have spent countless hours interviewing them, in settings ranging from medieval Lithuanian towns to nomads’ camps in Mongolia, from remote

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Siberian villages to bazaars in India. I have listened attentively as last speakers expressed their dismay and sadness at the impending loss of their language. I came to share theirsadness, and I wrote this book as my own small contribution to their cause. I also came believe that only a very different kind of world order, one that truly values and fosters diversity of thought and sustainability of traditional ways of life, can improve things. Most likely, the disappearance of languages will continue unchecked and will even speed up. What will be the consequences for us in...