The distribution of a language is a measure of the fate of a cultural group. English has diffused around the world from a small island in northwestern Europe because of the dominance of England and the United States over other territory on Earth’s surface. Icelandic remains a little-used language because of the isolation of the Icelandic people.
Key Issue 4: Why Do Languages Survive or Perish?
The distribution of a language is often an indicator of the fate of a cultural group—the patterns of diffusion and isolation affect a language’s survival.
Endangered Languages Even though the counts differ, both the United Nations and Ethnologue identify a significant number of the world’s languages as endangered. Through concerted community efforts, these languages persevere against globalizing forces. The South Pacific, Latin America, and North America are the world’s regions with the largest share of dying languages, due to the dominance of English, Spanish, and Portuguese in these areas.
Endangered Languages in the South Pacific Even though English is dominant, languages that existed prior to the arrival of Europeans still remain. New Zealand and Australia differ on policies for language preservation.
Australia Although Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make up only 1 percent of Australia’s population, 211 living indigenous languages exist today. English is the official language of instruction throughout the country.
New Zealand Fourteen percent of New Zealand’s population is of Maori descent, whose ancestors migrated from Polynesia over 750 years ago. Maori is one of New Zealand’s three official languages. Few (4 percent) are fluent and most are over age 50. Ethnologue classifies Maori as a threatened language.
Isolated & Extinct Languages Language patterns reflect the competition between two geographic trends— globalization and local diversity.
Isolated Languages Similarities and differences between languages mirrors the degree of interaction among groups of people. Isolation may preserve some languages, but doom other languages to extinction. An isolated language is a language that is unrelated to any other and thus not categorized in any language family. The major cause of an isolated language is limited interaction with other groups. A vibrant isolated language is spoken in all areas of life by all members of a community. Seven isolated language in the world today are classified as vibrant. The remainder of the isolated languages are classified as dying.
Basque: Europe’s Only Isolated Language Basque (Euskara) is the only example of a vibrant isolated language in Europe. Basque is a remnant of languages that existed prior to the arrival of speakers of Indo-European languages. Located in an isolated location in the Pyrenees Mountains of Spain and France, no connections between Basque and other languages have been made.
Icelandic: An Unchanging Language While Icelandic is not considered an isolated language because it is in the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, its geographic isolation has affected is development. The language has changed little since the time of Norwegian colonization in 874 C.E.
Extinct Languages An extinct language is a language that was once used by people in daily activities but is no longer in use. There are four stages in the extinction of a language: (1) restrictions on the use of the language in public places (2) the language is no longer taught to children (3) the language is only spoken by older people and (4) the language is no longer spoken and becomes extinct. Ethnologue estimates that 367 languages have become extinct since 1950, at rate of 6 per year.an annual rate of 6. Language loss can be attributed to globalization as people abandon their indigenous language and adopt a more widely used language.
Preserving Languages In 2003 the United Nations instituted a program to preserve endangered languages.
Brythonic Celtic The Celtic language branch is divided into Goidelic and Brythonic groups. Speakers of Brythonic are concentrated in Wales, Cornwall, and the Brittany peninsula in France.
Welsh Wales was conquered by the English in 1283. In the 19th century many English speakers migrated to Wales bringing the English language with them. Efforts have been made to preserve the Welsh language— compulsory subject in school, the publication of official government documents, and television programming. Even though Welsh has become the official language in Wales, 73 percent of people living there reported no Welsh language skills.
Cornish Cornish is the Celtic language that originated in the county of Cornwall in southwestern England. Although the last native speaker of Cornish died in 1777, a revival has seen 577 people alive today claiming to be fluent. Classes are taught in schools for both children and adults seeking to learn the language.
Breton Spoken in the Brittany peninsula of France, the number of people fluent in the language has declined from 1 million in 1950 to approximately 200,000 today, with three quarters of the speakers being over the age of 65. In addition to facing this generational problem, the French government has mandated French as the principal language of instruction in public schools.
Goidelic Celtic Irish Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic are the two remaining Goidelic languages.
Irish English and Irish are the two official languages in Ireland. On a daily basis, Irish is spoken by 94,000 people, with an additional 1.3 million stating that they can speak it and use it occasionally. Use of Irish is more concentrated in the remote areas of the country. The revival of the Irish language is led by young Irish living in other countries. As part of this effort, many rock groups have begun to record and perform in Gaelic as they seek to recapture their heritage.
Scottish Gaelic 59,000 people, or 1 percent of the population, in Scotland speak Scottish Gaelic. This language is more likely to be located in the more remote areas of Scotland’s northern highlands and islands.
New & Growing Languages Coincident with a decline in the number of languages worldwide, several languages are being invented or revived. These actions reflect the value groups place on language as an element of local culture.
5.4
Endangered language A language that children are no longer learning, and its remaining speakers use it less frequently.
Isolated language A language that is unrelated to any other languages and therefore not attached to any language family.
Language extinction A language that is no longer spoken by anyone as their native language
Threatened language A language used for face-to-face communication, but is losing users.