BY JOEL TSVAKWI
Suzanne Romaine and Daniel Nettle, in their book titled Vanishing Voices, wrote that half of the world’s languages could be extinct by the next century, meaning by 2200, most languages would have disappeared.
There is a growing and disgusting tendency of disliking one’s mother language especially if it’s a minority language, in preference of popular languages in a particular community.
This has created an egg-and-chick situation where elders blame the youths and the latter also blaming the former for not doing enough to promote the continued use of one’s native language.
With this scenario, there is inevitable dying of languages at unprecedented rates that something needs to be done.
A UNESCO report says the rate of language extinction has now reached the unprecedented worldwide level of 10 every year.
Scientists predict that 50 to 90% of today’s spoken languages will disappear during this century and their preservation is an urgent matter.
What has become stochastic and worrisome is the rate at which scientists are predicting the death of many languages on earth, and findings are that of the world’s estimated 6 000 to 7 000 languages, one language dies after every 14 days.
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Standard Style caught up with Laston Mukaro, a senior lecturer in the department of linguistics at the University of Zimbabwe, who described what language extinction is.
“Language extinction has been used interchangeably, and wrongly, with language death. Language extinction has to do with the speakers vanishing, for example, humans who claim the language as their native tongue have become extinct
“This normally comes as a result of the language being crowded out by bigger languages. This leads to the speakers changing preference of the home, society and regional language in favour of a more prestigious, powerful and politically relevant language.
“This phenomenon is called linguistic imperialism, where one language forces itself on speakers of another language and eventually takes over. Eventually, there will not be any more cultural transmission of the language, for example, transmission of a language from one generation to the other. The younger generation will have nowhere to acquire the language from due to changing preferences. Literally, the last speaker will speak the last word and becomes extinct.”
Mukaro said an extinct language was one that is known, but no one can speak it.
Language diversity like bio-diversity is doomed for extinction for reasons which are directly linked to European conquest, industrialisation and of late the concept of the global village.
Scientists believe that much like endangered plants and animal species, so is the expected extinction of half of the world languages by the end of this century.
Mukaro said language dying cannot be stopped as it is a natural process and the blame is not on the dying languages.
Experts concur that language issues can not be seperated from nation building and development of the country, hence language is central in education.
The concept of protecting languages was mooted during the middle of the 20th century and language rights were incorporated into the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
While language death cannot be stopped, these initiatives can at least slow down the rate and encourage multilingualism.
The effects of language dying should not be underestimated as scientists say if we end up speaking one language, our brains would lose some of their natural capacity for linguistic inventiveness.
Mukaro alludes to the inevitability of language extinction. However, he offers some suggestions from a linguistic point of view to delay the death or extinction of endangered languages.
In Zimbabwe 16 languages are now officially recognised by the new constitution and likewise they are not spared from this spate of extinction, hence the need to craft language policies.
“Language death is part of linguistic evolution, meaning when all the factors fertile for it to happen arise, it becomes natural. Linguists, in partnership with the government and activists, can engage in linguistic revitalisation.
“This is a process which aims, among other things, to save languages that are endangered and also to bring to life those that would have died,” Mukaro said.
