otherlanguages.org
. . . Huvudlänkar

introduktionssida på nederländsk / engelska / kinesiska* / ungrare / japanesisk

link to i-mode page

#

generella språklänkar

#

andra alfabet

Icke-alfabetiska skrifter

#

utrotningshotade språk

#

teckenspråk

#

kartor

#

sånger och musik

#

utdöda språk


*1

#

lista över språk

#

andra länkar

* page still being developed

to links pages [1] [2] [3] [4]

Svenska länkar : language / dictionary / newspaper list

erik stattins / fredrik appelberg / gustav holmberg / blindhona / rymdimperiet / swedish in 1000 difficult lessons / nytt onder solen / (in Finnish: selfdestruct.net) / per ericson

*2

Can you translate the next 300 words into Can you translate the next 300 words into Hindi or Korean?; if so please contact me and there will be revelry.

Språk dör ut varje vecka - vem bryr sig?

Vi gör det, otherlanguages.org, bygger gradvis upp en referenskälla för över femtusen språkminoriteter och statslösa språk världen över.

tackle *1
Tusentals unika språkgemenskaper är på väg att utrotas. Av världens fem till sex tusen olika språk vet vi knappt vad det är vi förlorar. Vilken erfarenhetsvärld, vilka filosofier och vilka tankesätt försvinner egentligen just nu?

Och?

Kanhända kommer vi till och med i högre grad ångra den totala utrotningen av tusentals lingvistiska kulturer, än vad vi ångrar den onödiga utrotningen av många djur och växter.

Planeten domineras alltmer av en handfull stora språkliga monokulturer såsom mandarin, hinduiska, arabiska, indonesiska, urdu, spanska, portugisiska, engelska, swahili, ryska, kantonkinesiska, japanska, bengaliska – alla vackra och fascinerande språk.

Men det är även de 5000 andra språken.

Och är dessa grupper av människor?

En språkminoritet utgörs av en grupp vanliga människor vars modersmål inte överensstämmer med det officiella språk som talas i landet. Svensktalande i Finland, fransktalande i Kanada, ungerskspråkiga i Slovakien – och ett hundratals fler – är språkminoriteter.

Och totalt statslösa språk är modersmål för några av världens mest fängslande och okända kulturer. Såsom samerna norr om polcirkeln, sarderna på Sardinien, Ainu-folket i Japan, cherokeerna i USA, gaelisktalande i Storbritannien, friser i Nederländerna, Xhosa- eller Zulufolket i Sydafrika. Det finns endast ett par hundra kända suveräna stater och territorier, vilket betyder att över 5000 språk är modersmål för språkligt statslösa människor.

Hur skulle du kunna hjälpa dessa?

Du behöver inte lära dig ett språk som är i farozonen – än mindre behöver du leva i regnskogen för att hindra dess utplåning.

En bra början är dock att tala om för dina vänner att webbsidor som denna finns.

(to contact Swedish translator, e-mail via contact@otherlanguages.org)

Broader public interest makes it easier for linguists to raise funds and organise people to learn these languages while there's time.

That's right. There are people who love languages and are happy to learn them on behalf of the rest of us, but they need support, just like zoologists, botanists, or historians.

Fewer languages still sounds good to me

Depends what you think languages are for. They're not just a tool for business. We never said you should learn three or four thousand rare languages - or even one. And which ones we make children learn in school, or whether we should force children to learn languages at all, is another question.

A century ago - before we understood ecology, and when we cared less about wilderness, most educated people would have laughed at the idea of worrying about plants or animals going extinct. Now we understand how important species diversity is for our own futures, we are more humble, and more worried.

In the same way, linguistic triumphalism by English-speakers who hated studying foreign grammar at school is dangerously ignorant as well as arrogant. Few of us know what we are losing, week by week. How many people realise these languages have scientific value?

Scientific value?

You can think of these languages across the planet as beautiful cathedrals or precious archeological sites we are watching being destroyed. That should be motive enough.

But these five thousand languages may also hold clues to the structure of the human mind. Subtle differences and similarities between languages are helping archeologists and anthropologists to understand what happened in the hundreds of centuries of human history before written history. And that is one of our best chances of understanding how human brains developed over the thousands of centuries leading up to that.

Study of the mind and study of language go hand in hand these days. The world's most marginal languages are actually precious jigsaw pieces from an overall picture of who we are and how our species thinks and evolves. Every tiny language adds another brightly-coloured clue to this academic detective story.

Yet researchers have hardly started sifting through this tantalising evidence, and language extinction is washing it away right in front of us.

And worst of all, most people have no idea that there is this fantastic profusion of cultures across our world, let alone that they are in danger of extinction. Even just more people learning that there are still five thousand living languages in the world today (most of us would answer five hundred or fifty) is already a huge help.

We English-speakers hardly notice English - it's like air for us. But every other language is also an atmosphere for an entire cultural world, and each of these worlds has people whose home it is. Each language encapsulates a unique way of talking and thinking about life. Just try some time in a foreign prison, being forced to cope in another language, and you'll realise how much your own language is your identity. That's true for everyone.

Minority languages are a human-rights issue?

One of the most basic.

Dozens of millions of people worldwide suffer persecution from national governments for speaking their mother tongue - in their own motherland.

Many 'ethnic' feuds puzzling to outsiders had as their basis an attempt to destroy a linguistic community. Would the Northern Ireland dispute be quite so bitter if we English had not so nearly stamped out the Irish Gaelic language, for example? Almost nowhere in the world does a language community as small as the few thousand Rheto-Romanic speakers - the fourth official language of Switzerland - get the protection of a national government. Next time you see some Swiss Francs, check both sides of the banknote.

But outside exceptional countries like Switzerland or the Netherlands, speakers of non-official languages have a much less protected experience.

Speakers of minority languages are often seen as a threat by both the governments and the other residents of the countries where they were born, grew up, and try to live ordinary lives.


*2
They experience discrimination in the job and education markets of their homelands, often having no choice but to pursue education in the major language of the host state - a deliberate government policy usually aimed at gradually absorbing them into the majority culture of that country.

Most governments are privately gleeful each time another small separate culture within their borders is snuffed out by a dwindling population or a deliberately centralising education system.

The United Nations is no help. It is an association of a couple of hundred sovereign states based on exclusive control of territory, almost all of them anxious to smother any distinct group or tradition that in any way might blur or smudge the hard-won borders around those pieces of territory.

The usual approach by sovereign states is to deny their linguistic minorities even exist.

-

Mark Griffith, site administrator / contact@otherlanguages.org

back up to top of page

ic profusion of cultures across our world, let alone that they are in danger of extinction. Even just more people learning that there are still five thousand living languages in the world today (most of us would answer five hundred or fifty) is already a huge help.

We English-speakers hardly notice English - it's like air for us. But every other language is also an atmosphere for an entire cultural world, and each of these worlds has people whose home it is. Each language encapsulates a unique way of talking and thinking about life. Just try some time in a foreign prison, being forced to cope in another language, and you'll realise how much your own language is your identity. That's true for everyone.

Minority languages are a human-rights issue?

One of the most basic.

Dozens of millions of people worldwide suffer persecution from national governments for speaking their mother tongue - in their own motherland.

Many 'ethnic' feuds puzzling to outsiders had as their basis an attempt to destroy a linguistic community. Would the Northern Ireland dispute be quite so bitter if we English had not so nearly stamped out the Irish Gaelic language, for example? Almost nowhere in the world does a language community as small as the few thousand Rheto-Romanic speakers - the fourth official language of Switzerland - get the protection of a national government. Next time you see some Swiss Francs, check both sides of the banknote.

But outside exceptional countries like Switzerland or the Netherlands, speakers of non-official languages have a much less protected experience.

Speakers of minority languages are often seen as a threat by both the governments and the other residents of the countries where they were born, grew up, and try to live ordinary lives.


*2
They experience discrimination in the job and education markets of their homelands, often having no choice but to pursue education in the major language of the host state - a deliberate government policy usually aimed at gradually absorbing them into the majority culture of that country.

Most governments are privately gleeful each time another small separate culture within their borders is snuffed out by a dwindling population or a deliberately centralising education system.

The United Nations is no help. It is an association of a couple of hundred sovereign states based on exclusive control of territory, almost all of them anxious to smother any distinct group or tradition that in any way might blur or smudge the hard-won borders around those pieces of territory.

The usual approach by sovereign states is to deny their linguistic minorities even exist.

-

Mark Griffith, site administrator / contact@otherlanguages.org

back up to top of page