Thursday, November 12, 2009
Counterpoint: Is the loss of dying languages bad?
My previous post was about how many languages could be gone in the next 100 years and some of the efforts to preserve endangered languages. John McWhorter is a linguist, political commentator, and lecturer in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. In the current World Affairs Journal, he asks "Would it be inherently evil if there were not 6,000 spoken languages but one?" Read his discussion here.
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Am a member of NLSC who speaks somali, Kiswahili, Garre and English. I am worried that my mother tongue ( Garre which you never probably heard of) is first dying. The reason is that Garre community is a small dominated and marginalized/enslaved in Somalia, part of Ethiopia and North eastern Kenya. The dominant clans would alwasy want Garre pple to speak their (dominant clans's Languages such as somali) . The language itself is looked down upon. I was shocked and relieved when an interpreter I work for recently asked me if I knew anyone who speaks Garre.
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