The Fate of A Language

Assuming this world only needs money and development, will things be simpler when we all use the same language?

Currently, there are a total of 7,000 different languages being spoken around the world; but 41% of them are in a state of threat. Every two weeks, 1 language disappears. At the current rate, 50–90% of human languages will be extinct before the turn of the next century [1].

Similar to the extinction of a species in the habitat, a language will become extinct when it is no longer spoken by anyone [2]. It is necessary to distinguish the extinction of the language from the concept of “dead language” (language no longer used by any community as a native language) [3]. For example, Latin is a dead language. Still being taught and appearing quite commonly in scientific or legal terms; but it is not used in everyday communication nor is the primary language recognized in any country. The state of linguistic extinction, therefore, is of far greater severity. Because then it completely disappeared, no longer known and used, even as a sub-language. The fate of a language depends greatly on the number of people using that language, while one’s fate depends on larger historical and social changes.

With a number of more than 7,000 pieces, the linguistic diversity picture that seems to be colored in many colors is actually covered largely by less than 20 of the most popular languages ​​such as English, Chinese or Spanish, while the existence of other languages ​​is not even known… According to statistics, popular languages ​​make up only 5% of the total number of languages ​​available; but is used by 94% of the world’s population. This means that the remaining 95% of the minority languages ​​speak less than 6% of the more than 7 billion people living on this planet [4]. Most of less common languages belong to small communities (ethnic minorities or indigenous tribes) with a small population of only a few thousand or a few hundred people. Based on the criteria for evaluating the “health status” of a language set by UNESCO [5], their limited number of users makes them endangered languages ​​at various levels. . Some languages ​​such as the Dyirbal of the Australian Aboriginal, Guató in Northwest Brazil or Luiseño in Southern California, USA … are in serious threat with the number of speakers now counting on the fingers, and they are also not a particular minority when looking at the UNESCO “Red Book of Endangered Languages” and many other statistical sources [6].

(Some other criteria to assess the vitality of a language are the process of language transmission through generations, the ability of language to respond to the emergence of new forms and fields of communication, the number and quality of archives, or the attitude factors of the language’s users…).

1. On the edge of extinction

In general, language is a cultural element attached to the community of its users, and is therefore also affected when the community experiences changes or upheavals. According to “The Cambridge Handbook of Endangered Languages”, there are many causes that threaten the survival of a language. But in general, they can be divided into two groups: (1) physical harms that directly affect language-speaking communities and (2) difficulties or barriers that prevent language use [7 ].

Physical influence causes already sparse indigenous communities or cultural minorities to drastically decline in population, thereby shortening the life of the language they speak. These damages can stem from human losses in wars, civil wars or genocide. They can also be the result of natural causes such as natural disasters or epidemics. Boa Senior is the lucky one who survived by climbing a tree when the historic 2004 earthquake and tsunami swept across the Indian Ocean. She was also the last of the Great Andaman tribe to be fluent in Aka-Bo until it became extinct with her death in 2010 [8].

Although it can directly lead to the sudden and rapid disappearance of a language, physical influence is not a common cause affecting the linguistic diversity picture. The collective end of a language usually takes place over a period of decades to centuries, through the processes of language movement and attrition. This slow and agonizing death is caused by a second group of causes (2), which involve a series of complex and intertwined social factors, stretching from within the country to the scale of international relations.

The division of classes and differences in economic, political and cultural interests among social groups is a fairly common phenomenon and often leads to conflicts. In the context of linguistic differences between groups, in which the weaker group is often the same indigenous communities / cultural groups using minority languages, this imbalance and conflict can lead to a situation where a minority language is forced to be replaced by a more common language. With their dominance and power, the majority can introduce policies that discriminate, prohibit, and impose on the language, for example punishing the user or the compulsory teaching of other languages for ethnic minority children.

Such extreme policies are no different from persecution and genocide against language. From a historical perspective, this is common in the process of assimilation of culture for easier governing following the wars of aggression and took place especially popular during the period of colonial expansion and annexation of imperialism [9]. More recently, the case of Sri Lanka can be mentioned, when it passed a law making Sinhala language (the majority group) the only official language replacing both English and Tamil (the minority group) in 1956. The multi-faceted conflict between the Sinhalese and the Tamil was actually pre-existing, but this act is the most obvious manifestation of ethnic, cultural and linguistic discrimination, it’s a move aimed at knocking the Tamil minority group out of the labor market and the public sectors. It is also a drop of water that led to rebellion, violent clashes and culminated in a civil war that lasted for more than 25 years in this island nation [10].

On the contrary, there are also policies to encourage and promote language diversity in place; but that is not enough to prevent minority languages from gradually being replaced and vanished. From the outset, the imbalance of the current social paradigm has created invisible pressure, prompting individuals in the minority to abandon their native language in favor of a more dominant and common language.

The ability to communicate with the majority will help them be more accepted and thereby open up new opportunities, for example, access to knowledge, find jobs and increase income. This awareness not only makes individuals actively and voluntarily absorb other languages but also influences the educational orientation of their children, causing minority languages at the same time to lose both existing and future users.

Another more noticeable shift is urbanization. The formation and development of cities form gravity fields to attract more and more population flows. This flow caused members from indigenous cultural minority groups to be separated from the previously homogeneous and isolated native communication context. At the same time, it exposes them to a new environment with a diverse cultural mix, which puts pressure on integration and requires a common means of communication to ensure efficiency in work and life. The disappearance of the minority language is only a matter of time.

2. A Babel Tower in Globalization

Projecting from a national to a global scale, the above processes of displacement and erosion have taken place in a similar direction, and are particularly strongly influenced by economic development in the global context. [11].

Analysis of the interaction between a language minority (in terms of the number of speakers, coverage, and region of distribution of the language) and its external factors (topography, climate, GDP per capita at the area of distribution of language) shows that geographic and socio-economic factors both affect the rate of disappearance of language minorities in many degrees. In particular, economic growth and globalization are the factors that have the greatest impact on the extinction of the language.

Hot spots of minority language disappearance are often concentrated in economically developed regions (for example, the Northwest region of North America, Northern Australia, or developing countries along with the tropic of Cancer and the Himalayas). In particular, economic growth is associated with a series of changes in internal education and policy and the pressure to reconcile when cultural exposure occurs along with expanding trade. This result is quite consistent with factors as analyzed in part 1, and also similar to the hypotheses about the relationship between economic development factors under colonial imperialism with the extinction of minority languages. However, due to difficulties in data collection, the above results represent only about 10% of the available languages, and so the authors have not yet made a certain statement about the effects of economy on language diversity.

But on the other hand, linguistic diversity is a significant obstacle to international trade and globalization. According to statistics, the global cost of language services (mainly translation and translation) in 2010 was $ 26.3 billion and is forecast to reach 56.2 billion in 2021 [12]. Research shows that language gaps not only make it difficult for communication and exchange between parties but also reduce the probability of parties choosing to cooperate with each other in the first place. A country with a language that is much different from English will have a lower total amount of imports and exports in its economic relationship with the US [13].

But given the above limitations, assuming this world only needs money and development, will things be simpler when we all use the same language?

This seems unlikely even at the theoretical level. Language is born out of culture and always reacts to cultural changes. The origin, context, and distribution of cultural groups and population communities from the beginning were unequal premises, leading to the formation of different languages. Even if we start with the same common language, the outgrowth of communities will eventually lead to language transformation in different directions.

Given the current situation, if in the future there is only one language left for all mankind, it could be a disaster that no one wants. Although only one constituent factor, the disappearance of language can bring about the collapse of the entire culture that created it. Losing the key to accessing unique knowledge, achievements, and values accumulated over generations, the cultural identity of individuals in the language-speaking community will soon sink into oblivion. At that time, what became extinct was not the only language but also lost a series of other cultural factors surrounding it.

The alternative: everyone kept their own voices, and agreed to lay out a common language for global communication. This is probably a balanced solution for both preserving cultural diversity and promoting global communication. But looking deeper, it continues to raise another problem: Based on which criteria for a language to be selected? The economic potential and political influence of the country, or the ability to effectively and easily use the language itself?

In fact, this is the question we are facing. With a once-sprawling empire and the rise of American influence, English now has more than 1.5 billion speakers in more than 100 countries, is one of the most popular languages on the planet and currently plays the role of a lingua franca between people who do not speak the same language [14]. It is an important means of communication in many fields such as economics or foreign affairs, and holds a dominant position in academic research, with more than 80% of scientific publications published in English, all over the world [15].

The problem is, the need for English will create an additional burden on the educational system, which already had to carry a large part of the responsibility to preserve the native language. On the learner’s side, it is not easy to grasp and master language skills in another language. These difficulties can then form barriers between them and higher knowledge, or even prevent individuals from participating in science [16].

One more factor, nothing can guarantee that English will continue to maintain its place in the future. History has repeatedly seen the decline of once monopolized languages: Ancient Greek, Latin, Arabic, and just a few centuries before the heyday of English, French. [17]. They blossomed with the flourishing of empires and then disappeared as civilizations waned, giving way to the ascendancy of another language.

What will ensure that English will always keep its place? Politicians on one hand always want to keep their native language and develop it, on the other hand, are very cautious about choosing a common language as a second language (L2) because this process is very difficult to reverse. Future. Vietnam is an example, many people still urge the government to choose English as L2, but this has huge potential risks if another language (Chinese, Indian …) quickly rises in the future.

In the end, language is still just a means of communication and is only useful when it suits the requirements of the times and historical contexts. So a language itself must constantly change to adapt. Borrowing words, changing spelling rules, changing the meaning of old words, or even changing writing are constantly happening in almost every language at different rates and speeds. Stubbornly resisting is almost futile, but even when possible, it often leads to more bad than good.

Just like a life form in nature, language has only two options: constantly changing to adapt, or to die. In this process, humans play an important role, but at the same time, also miniscule.

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