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Preserving Endangered Languages

It is important to preserve endangered languages to maintain cultural diversity and heritage. When a language disappears, it means there are no fluent speakers left due to factors like language shift, cultural assimilation, lack of transmission or suppression. An example is Dalmatian, a Romance language once spoken in Croatia that went extinct in the 19th-20th centuries due to lack of standardization and changes in the political/cultural landscape. Ainu, an indigenous language of Japan, is endangered with few remaining speakers after years of suppression under Japanese government policies, though recent revitalization efforts aim to preserve the language.

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76 views1 page

Preserving Endangered Languages

It is important to preserve endangered languages to maintain cultural diversity and heritage. When a language disappears, it means there are no fluent speakers left due to factors like language shift, cultural assimilation, lack of transmission or suppression. An example is Dalmatian, a Romance language once spoken in Croatia that went extinct in the 19th-20th centuries due to lack of standardization and changes in the political/cultural landscape. Ainu, an indigenous language of Japan, is endangered with few remaining speakers after years of suppression under Japanese government policies, though recent revitalization efforts aim to preserve the language.

Uploaded by

garciagarciarita
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

SPEAKING, ENDANGERED LANGUAGES

Is it important to preserve endangered languages? Why?


_ What does it mean when a language disappear?
(Include ideas or examples taken from the videos below)
_ Choose one endangered language, like Maori, Inuit, Spokane...and speak about it: Its history,
where it is spoken, how many speakers, main characteristics, written works...

It is very important to preserve endangered languages for many reasons. Languages give us
cultural diversity, as each language carries unique cultural, historical and social knowledge that
can be lost when a language disappears. Preserving endangered languages, helps maintain
cultural diversity and ensures valuable cultural heritage. They also contribute with our linguistic
diversity and scientific knowledge, which contains insights into the workings of the humans
mind. They are also closely tied to the people´s who talk them the sense of identity and
belonging.

When a language disappears, it means that it Is no longer spoken, and there are no fluent
speakers left. This can happen when there is a language shift ( when a community shift to a
dominant or more widely spoken language), a cultural assimilation, lack of transmission or
language suppression( due to government policies)

An example of a language that have disappeared throughout history can be the Dalmatian
language, which was a romance language spoken in the dalmatian coast of the present day
Croatia. It became extinct in the 19 th and 20th centuries.

It evolved from latin and preserved many vulgar latin features and archaic elements, because it
evolved differently than other romance languages.

It had a big venetian influence because venice controlled in that time many coastal regions of
dalmatia.

It had lack of standardization as it was spoken in various dialects along the dalmatian coast.

Dalmatian began to decline in the 19 th century as the regions political and cultural landscape
changed and by the 20 th century the language had all but disappeared with the last known speaker
Tuone Udaina, passing away in 1898

One example of an endangered language which hasn’t disappeared is the Ainu, which is spoken
by people in Japan. He ainu people are an indigenous group primarly form Hokkaido, in the
northern of Japans main islands.

It os one of the isolated languages with no lnown gnetic relationships to other languages

It has a long historu of decline due to various historical factors. Japanese govement policies,
including assimilation and discrimination, suppressed the ainu culture and language over the
years. And as a result the numer of ainu speakers has decreased significantly.

But in the latest years there has been efforts to revitalize and preserve the language with support
form the Japanese government who has been working to promote ainu language and awarness

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