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MESA REDONDA SOBRE LOS IDIOMAS EN PELIGRO DE EXTINCIÓN
CAFÉ SENTIDO EXPLORA SOLUCIONES PARA LA CRISIS EN UNA TERTULIA ABIERTA A NUEVAS IDEAS
16 mayo 2007
La exposición y seminario "El mundo escrito", último capítulo de Café Sentido, culminó en la mesa redonda sobre los miles de idiomas en vías de extinción. La charla siguió la política y las metas del proyecto de forma excepcional: una mesa redonda, diálogo informal, puntos de vista apasionados, y la oportunidad de aprender, el uno del otro. [Texto completo] |
SABORES PERDIDOS: 3.500 IDIOMAS EN VÍAS DE EXTINCIÓN
LA MITAD DE LOS IDIOMAS ACTUALMENTE HABLADOS DESAPARECERÁN DENTRO DE 100 AÑOS
8 mayo 2007
Si las tendencias actuales se realizan, en menos de un siglo, más de 3.500, la mitad de todos los idiomas actualmente hablados, desaparecerán. La civilización humana está enfrentando el momento de mayor peligro para las culturas más locales y periféricas, y será necesario tomar en cuenta lo que se va a perder en este proceso de purgación involuntaria y extinción.
El chauvinismo de las grandes culturas puede ser un accidente histórico más que chauvinismo, pero su peso es innegable, y hemos de comparar lo que pueden ser las luchas históricas que ocurren en lugares como Catalunya, donde un idioma con más de 10 millones de parlantes nativos se ha visto en ciertos momentos amenazado por la ignorancia y la persecución. Es necesario pensar qué es lo que busca una cultura en la debilidad de otra, por qué no puedcn coexistir muchos idiomas no sólo en una sola persona, sino en un lugar y en un momento, solapados y sanos.
Exploraremos unos mitos: Estados Unidos tiene fama de ser un país donde la mayoría habla un solo idioma, aunque entre 300 millones, ya 40 millones hablan castellano, y en la vida cotidiana, se hablan en total, según el censo del 2000, 329 idiomas. Europa, que tiene mayor población y se conoce más que nada por su política multilingüe y el talento de mucha gente por navegar varios idiomas a la vez, resulta ser la región con la menor diversidad lingüística per cápita en todo el mundo.
Las monoculturas: Turquía solía no reconocer la cultura de los kurdos; imponía la monocultura turca. Francia, con fama de ser el país ilustrado, abierto, democrático, por excelencia y por principio, también tiene una política oficial de cultura única: el francés que conocemos como 'el francés' es sólo uno de más de 30 idiomas indígenas de la Francia actual, por no mencionar la alta tasa de ciudadanos e inmigrantes que también hablan o vietnamita o árabe.
¿Qué busca un radical derechista del Congreso de Estados Unidos cuando propone declarar un idioma oficial? ¿Es consciente ese hombre, o el mundo de fuera, que en ese país tal ley sería ilegal, una violación de la provisión constitucional de que el Congreso no puede poner ninguna ley que limitara la libertad de expresión? ¿No es más sano un plurilingüismo vasto y felizmente carente de ideología, como el que ya domina entre esos 300 millones de personas que han venido de todo el mundo para explorar una convivencia sin precedentes?
Son en muchos casos unos cuantos estudiosos que realmente protegen y rehabilitan los idiomas en vías de extinción.
WORLD'S LANGUAGES DISAPPEARING AT ALARMING RATE
HALF OF ALL KNOWN LANGUAGES MAY DISAPPEAR BY 2100
6 October 2006
The world's three most widely-spoken languages, English, Spanish and Mandarin, each enjoy more than 450 million speakers worldwide. These languages are increasingly useful for international business and for diplomacy in an interconnected global society. But languages with fewer than 10 million speakers are now considered "minor" and many long-standing cultures are in danger of disappearing, as only a handful of people remain who can speak them. [Full Story]
THE ILLUSION OF THE DEFINITE & INVASIVE 'OTHER'
SEVEN LIES THAT INFORM THE PUSH FOR AN ENGLISH-ONLY UNITED STATES
25 May 2006
The identity of groups, or for that matter of individuals is not implacable, nor is it absolutely relative. It follows the vicissitudes of the human health and mind, and requires sincere dialogue with the other in order to reach its fullest potential. The push to establish a single national language can only be sustained on the basis of a number of false premises, all of which work against the interests of both a democratic society and American tradition itself. [Full Story]
Brazil has launched the world's first museum devoted solely to the history and evolution of a language: Portuguese, the national language since the colonial era and independence. The museum is located in the Station of Light, a train facility built by the British at the turn of the 20th century, and a national architectural landmark. [Full Story]
CATALÁN SUPREME COURT RULES GOVERN MUST PROVIDE BILINGUAL INSTRUCTION
15 December 2005
For the 3rd time over the span of roughly 1 year, the Supreme Court of Catalunya has ruled that the Generalitat must provide bilingual instruction —the option to study in Castilian instead of Catalán— at least until the age of 8 in primary schools. [Full Story]
POLITICS OF LANGUAGE IN DIVERSE SPAIN
14 December 2005
Spain's opposition PP has accused the regional government of Catalunya of "investigating, inspecting and sanctioning" businesses that put signs exclusively in Castilian (the language commonly known as "Spanish", though it originates in the central Spanish region of Castile, and other regions use other languages), according to La Vanguardia newspaper. [Full Story]
TWO LINGUISTS STAND AS LAST BASTION OF FADING CALIFORNIA LANGUAGE
27 July 2004
MotherJones reports this month that the 82-year-old linguist, William Shipley, is one of the last handful of speakers of Mountain Maidu, a language spoken by aboriginal Californians. He is passing his knowledge of the language to a young "protégé", who is actually of Maidu descent and seeks to return the language to use among his people.
Shipley has devoted many years of his life to the study and propagation of knowledge about Maidu. According to Dashka Slater's report, "He developed a system for writing the language and has published a grammar, a dictionary, and a lyrical translation of Maidu myths and stories. He is now one of the last living speakers of the language... [Full Story]
LANGUAGES ENDANGERED WORLDWIDE
29 November 2003
As many as half of all known languages may die out during the next century. That figure is already staggering, but paired with the estimate of 6,800 believed to be spoken today, it represents a looming cultural catastrophe. In a world where languages with less than 10 million speakers are considered to be "minor" or "obscure" languages by many people, the world's native and regional languages are threatened.
154 native languages still spoken in North America, compared with the estimated 300 which would have been spoken 500 years ago. When languages are lost, the cultural fabric of a people or a continent can shift dramatically. Daniel Everett, of the University of Manchester, describes this loss in his report "From Threatened Languages to
Threatened Lives":
A language is a repository of the riches of highly specialised cultural experiences. When a language is lost, all of us lose the knowledge contained in that language's words and grammar, knowledge that can never be recovered if the language has not been studied or recorded.
In such a climate of community breakdown, the larger cultural fabric also suffers this loss of overall coherence, along with the loss of language-specific concepts, philosophies and solutions. [Full Story]
MULTILINGUAL SOCIETIES SHOW NEW DYNAMISM
4 July 2003
Both North America and Europe are becoming increasingly mixed societies, drawing from large pools of legal and illegal immigrants, many of whom are migrating to countries whose predominant language they themselves do not speak. The US, for example, is the world's fifth largest Spanish-speaking country, with some 35 to 40 million native speakers. In New York City, more than half of all residents speak a language other than English in their homes. [Full Story]
