Language Death, Part 2

1 December 2004

The issue of language death is a hot topic among linguists. Language death is the disappearance of dialects from the globe, the reduction in the number of dialects that are spoken worldwide. Most linguists agree that we are in the midst of an era where languages are disappearing at an extremely rapid rate and that this will result in various dire consequences for humanity and culture.

Last month, we examined the question of language death and how large a problem it is. This month, we’ll take a look at what the consequences of language death are and what can be done to address the problem.

Is it really a problem?
Isn’t the multiplicity of languages a barrier to communications? Wouldn’t a reduction in the number of languages improve the human condition and be a catalyst for peace? It is a common belief that a single language, or at least fewer languages, would make it easier for peoples to communicate, improve trade and economic conditions, and make war less likely.

Let’s take the last claim first. Are people who speak a common language less likely to make war with one another? Some of the bloodiest conflicts in recent years have been civil wars in countries where people speak the same language. Northern Ireland, Rwanda, Burundi, Cambodia, Vietnam, Korea, and China-Taiwan are all examples of conflicts or potential flashpoints between peoples who speak the same language. As a matter of fact, linguistic uniformity is more likely the result of war and violence than a vaccine for it. The dominant languages of the world, English, Russian, French, Spanish, Arabic, and Chinese are dominant because at some point in history those peoples engaged in extended periods of imperialism, bringing their language to others at the point of a sword or the barrel of a gun.

But there is truth to the belief that a common language can be beneficial in many ways, particularly economically. A common language facilitates trade and one of the driving forces behind language death is urbanization and other migrations of people seeking economic opportunity. They abandon the dialects of their home in favor of a tongue that opens doors to prosperity. This belief however assumes that one must choose between languages, it is either one or another. This is simply not the case, as is evidenced by the fact that most people in this world speak two or more languages. Spanish-speaking immigrants to the United States need to learn English to make the most of the American economy, but this does not mean they need to abandon Spanish. The Netherlands is an excellent example of a nation with a vibrant home language while encouraging the use of English and other European languages.

How does the death of one language diminish others?
Anyone who has studied English etymology knows that the answer to this is yes. Languages borrow from one another—and none do so more than English. Contact with speakers of other languages enriches a language, giving it access to words and concepts that it lacks. Reducing the number of languages inevitably reduces the opportunities for borrowing terms and concepts.

And it is not just borrowing words that is at stake. Language death means the loss of literature and folklore, written or oral. Even if written down and preserved, the literature becomes inaccessible to all but a handful of linguists who bother to learn a dead language.

History, too, loses valuable evidence when languages die. It is not simply the loss of the stories that are told, although this can be a tremendous loss in and of itself, but the very structure of language contains valuable historical clues. For example, there are no contemporary written accounts of the Anglo-Saxon conquest of England. Accounts such as Bede’s come centuries later and are often at odds with each other and with physical evidence. Language can come to our rescue. By studying the spelling (which reflected pronunciation much more than English does today) and word choice, we can often see which groups of Germanic invaders were dominant during a particular period or the extent to which they influenced one another.

The hard sciences can also suffer with the loss of languages, particularly indigenous languages. Indigenous peoples often make subtle distinctions in their languages relating to flora, fauna, and geology found in their regions. These distinctions are not always readily apparent to Western science and the indigenous languages can often point scientists to discoveries of new animal and plant species or to interesting geologic formations.

Finally, each language is interesting in and of itself. Each language is vital to the continuing study of linguistics and cognitive sciences. The loss of each language is the loss of valuable data, making it more difficult to further our understanding of these fields. There clearly is a problem with language death. The consequences may not be as severe as with the loss of biological species, a phenomenon with which language death is often compared, but the negative consequences are significant. The disappearance of languages across the globe.

Last month we saw that this is a growing problem. While languages have always died, they are disappearing at a greater rate today than in the past. This, coupled with the negative consequences of this that we have seen in this article, require that something be done to slow the disappearance and mitigate the consequences. Next month we’ll take a look at what steps can be taken to do this.

Holiday Shopping List

1 December 2004

What do you get the word lover in your family for Christmas? You get them a copy of Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends by David Wilton (Hardcover, Oxford University Press, 2004, $21.95). But of course they ran out to the book store on the first day the book was available, so that’s no good. What other books are out there that the discriminating logophile will enjoy? Here is a list, culled from those we’ve reviewed over the past few years.

New Dickson Baseball Dictionary by Paul Dickson (Paperback, Harvest Books, 1999, $20.00). This is without a doubt the best reference for baseball slang and jargon. Rigorously researched, Dickson gives usage citations for the earliest known appearance of most terms. A joy for both baseball fans and word lovers, a treasure for those who are both.

Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language by John McWhorter (Paperback, Perennial Books, 2003, $13.95). A superb and highly readable review of the processes of language change and comparative linguistics. McWhorter is insightful and intellectually daring.

The Man Who Deciphered Linear B by Andrew Robinson (Hardcover, Thames & Hudson, 2002, $19.95). This one is a bit different. It is a biography of Michael Ventris, the polymath who, in the mid-20th Century, was the first to successfully read the ancient Greek language known as Linear B. It is a fascinating account of a truly brilliant mind at work.

Predicting New Words: The Secrets of Their Success, by Allan Metcalf (Hardcover, Houghton Mifflin, 2002, $22.00). This book provides a theory for why certain new terms survive while most are rapidly forgotten. Metcalf also provides a formula for predicting the success of words while they are still new. Whether he is right or not will be known in about 50 years, but in the meantime it is still fun reading.

The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary, by Simon Winchester (Hardcover, Oxford University Press, 2003, $25.00). This is a “biography” of a dictionary. Winchester tells us the story of the Oxford English Dictionary, how it came into existence, the methodology used by the lexicographers, and the struggle to keep the project going over the decades. Above all, it is the story of a fascinating cast of characters who (mostly) labored in obscurity to produce what is probably the greatest reference work ever created.

Word Spy: The Word Lover’s Guide to Modern Culture, by Paul McFedries (Paperback, Broadway Books, 2004, $15.95). A wonderful collection of new terms from his excellent website (www.wordspy.com) which McFedries expertly ties to current cultural trends. Fascinating linguistics and sociology.

Dewdroppers, Waldos and Slackers: A Decade-By-Decade Guide to the Vanishing Vocabulary of the Twentieth Century, by Rosemarie Ostler (Hardcover, Oxford University Press, 2003, $25.00). Last but not least, this is the true gem of the list. Each chapter of this wonderful book addresses the terms that are emblematic of a particular decade in the 20th Century. From speakeasy to Trekkie, from jitterbug to hip-hop, no word lover should be without this book.

Capitalizing Internet

1 December 2004

2004 was a year of many milestones, but one small one that passed unnoticed by most was that on 16 August Wired News ceased to capitalize the word internet. “Effective with this sentence, Wired News will no longer capitalize the ‘I’ in internet,” wrote Tony Long, Wired News’ copy chief. On that date, Wired News also ceased to capitalize web and net, although it retains capitalization in World Wide Web.

The reason for capitalizing internet in the first place was that their are in actuality many different internets, or networks of computers linked by TCP/IP protocols (the IP stands for internet protocol). The largest of these, the global network with which we are all familiar, was capitalized to distinguish it from the smaller networks.

But the growth of the global internet brought about this change. It assimilated many of the smaller internets and those that survived as independent networks have been relegated to insignificance in the popular imagination. To most people, there is only one internet.

So Internet started losing its capital I. Like radio and television, it became just another communications medium and like those earlier technologies did not deserve a capital letter.

Some still capitalize it, of course. But the significance of the Wired News style change should not be underestimated. The practice of capitalizing the word is clearly on the way out.

Word of the Month: Christmas

1 December 2004

December is a month of holidays that have spawned any number of words and phrases that, while familiar, do not have obvious etymologies. Many are based on traditions that are quite old and the words survive only in their holiday incarnations. So, our word of the month for this December is Christmas, n., the festival, or mass, of Christ’s nativity, celebrated on 25 December, from the Old English Cristes mæsse, before 1123.

A list of words associated with Christmas and other December holidays follows:

advent, n., the period leading up to Christmas, esp. the four preceding Sundays, from the Old French, ultimately from the Latin adventus or arrival, c.1100.

angel, n., a spiritual being who serves as an attendant and messenger of God, c.1150, an Old English adoption from the Latin angelus, ultimately from the Greek angelos, messenger.

auld lang syne, c.phr., Scots dialectal phrase meaning days of long ago or old friendship (literally, old long since). The popular song of this name began life in 1721 and is by poet Allan Ramsay. The version that is most familiar today is a 1793 modification of the original by Robert Burns.

Boxing-day, n., the first weekday after Christmas, traditionally the day on which delivery persons and servants would receive a box of Christmas gifts, 1833.

carol, n. & v., a song in celebration of Christmas, 1502, from earlier sense of a joyful song, 1303, and a ring dance, before 1300. To sing such as song dates to before 1369 and to dance a ring dance from before 1300. From the Old French carole. The ultimate origin is uncertain, but it could either be from the Latin chorus or, if the origin is related to ring, carolla, meaning crown or garland.

Chanukah, n., Jewish festival celebrating the purification of the temple in Jerusalem by Judas Maccabaeus, beginning on the 25th of Kislev and lasting eight days (in November-December in the common calendar). From the Hebrew for consecration, in English use from 1891. Also spelled Hannukah.

Christ, n., title given to Jesus of Nazareth, from the Old English crist, ultimately from the Latin Christus and Greek christos, anointed, c.950.

crèche, n., a representation of the infant Jesus in the manger, used for display at Christmas, 1792, from the French for crib.

dreidel, n., a four-sided top inscribed with Hebrew letters used in children’s play during Chanukah, 1934, from the Yiddish dreydl, ultimately from the Middle High German draejen, to turn (mod. German drehen).

egg nog, n., a drink made with eggs, usually mixed with spirits, 1825, the nog is from the name of a strong East Anglian beer, of unknown origin, 1693.

elf, n., a supernatural being of Germanic folklore, in Christmas tradition elves assist Santa Claus, from the Old English aelf.

Epiphany, n., festival commemorating the manifestation of the infant Jesus to the Magi (the Gentiles), celebrated on 6 January, the twelfth day of Christmas, from the Old French epiphanie, ultimately from the Latin and Greek meaning to manifest, before 1310. Figurative use meaning a sudden appearance or revelation dates to before 1667.

Father Christmas, n., British name for the personification of Christmas as an old man with flowing, white beard who bears gifts, 1658.

Feast of Stephen, n., the festival of St. Stephen, celebrated on 26 December. In Britain the day was celebrated by servants killing a wren, in Celtic tradition this was usually considered unlucky, but not so on St. Stephen’s Day. The servants would carry the wren from house to house, requesting money or food. This eventually became the tradition of Boxing-day.

First Night, n., a non-alcoholic New Year’s Eve celebration featuring cultural events, the tradition began in Boston in 1976 and has spread to other cities.

frankincense, n., an aromatic gum resin from the tree genus Boswellia, used as incense, associated with Christmas as being one of the three gifts of the Magi, from Old French frank, meaning of superior quality, + incense, before 1387.

fruitcake, n., a cake containing fruit, traditionally eaten at Christmas, 1854.

gold, n., a yellow, precious metal, the chemical with the symbol Au, associated with Christmas as being one of the three gifts of the Magi, from the Old English from a common Germanic root.

holly, n., an evergreen shrub or tree with green, prickly leaves and red berries, commonly used as a Christmas decoration, from the Old English holen, c.1150.

humbug, n., a hoax, fraud, or sham, 1751, uttered by Ebeneezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens’ 1843 A Christmas Carol in reference to the holiday.

Immanuel, n., title given to Jesus of Nazareth, from Hebrew via Greek and Latin, literally meaning God is with us, 15th century, often Emmanuel.

Kwanzaa, n., a festival observed by many African-Americans, celebrated 26 December to 1 January. From the Swahili kwanza, meaning first. The full name of the festival is matunda ya kwanza, or first fruits (of the harvest). 1966.

magi, n., plural of magus, a Persian priest or astronomer, applied to the wise men, traditionally depicted as three, from the East who brought gifts to the infant Jesus, from the Latin and Greek, ultimately from Old Persian, 1377.  The names traditionally given them are 7th century, not Biblical. Balthasar is from the Babylonian Belu-sharu-usur, Bel protect the king. Gaspar is from the Persian Kansbar, treasurer. And Melchior is from the Hebrew meaning my king of light.

manger, n., an open box or trough out of which animals can eat fodder, from the Anglo-Norman mangure, ultimately from the Middle French mangeoire, to eat, in English use since before 1333.

menorah, n., an eight-branched candelabrum used during Chanukah celebrations, a seven-branched candelabrum used in the Temple in Jerusalem, now a symbol of Judaism, 1886, from the Hebrew.

Messiah, n., the deliverer of the Jewish people and savior of humanity as promised in Hebrew scriptures, from the Old English, ultimately from Hebrew, before 1200; in extended use, with lower case, to mean any liberator of an oppressed people, 1667.

mistletoe, n., a yellowish-green, hemi-parasitic shrub with white berries, Viscum album, that grows on the branches of trees, used in England as a Christmas decoration. The root mistle—, which is another name for the plant, has cognates in many Germanic languages. The –toe is from the Old English tan, or twig. The word dates to the Old English era.

myrrh, n., an aromatic gum resin from the genus Commiphora, used in perfumes and incense, associated with Christmas as being one of the three gifts of the Magi, from Old English, ultimately from the Latin murra and eventually Greek.

nativity, n., the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, from the Latin for birth, before 1230, applied to a person’s birth in general, c.1350.

noel, interj. & n., orig. nowell, a male name, usually given to boys born on Christmas, 12th century; a word of joy shouted at Christmas, c.1395; the feast of Christmas, c.1400; a Christmas carol, 1786; from the Middle French, a variant on the Latin natal.

partridge, n., a type of game bird, in Europe applied to Perdix cinera, in North America to one of several birds in the grouse or pheasant families, from the Middle English pertrich or partrich, and from there the Old French pertriz or perdriz, ultimately from Greek, c.1290.

plum pudding, n., a bread pudding with plums, traditionally eaten at Christmas, 1711.

poinsettia, n., Mexican flower, Euphorbia pulcherrima, consisting of bright, red leaves surrounding greenish-yellow flowers, used as a Christmas decoration, after J.R. Poinsett (1779-1851), American ambassador to Mexico, 1836.

reindeer, n., a type of deer, Rangifer tarandus, often domesticated, once common in Central Europe, now confined to sub-arctic regions, from the Old Norse hreindryi, the word hreinn is another name for the animal + dry or deer, before 1400. The names of Santa’s reindeer Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder, and Blitzen first appear in Clement Moore’s 1822 poem A Visit From St. Nicholas. (Moore’s poem used the name Donder, subsequent tradition has altered this to the modern German Donner, meaning thunder.) The name Rudolph originated in a story written by Montgomery Ward copywriter Robert May in 1939 as a promotion for customers. The song, based on the story, was written by Gene Autry in 1949.

Saint Nicholas, n., name for Santa Claus or Father Christmas, after the 4th century Bishop of Myra and saint, feast day on 6 December. The historical saint’s connection to gift giving is in an apocryphal tale of three sisters, too poor to afford dowries. As each reached marriageable age, Nicholas anonymously delivered money during the night so they could be married. Some versions of the tale have the father waiting up to see who the benefactor was, only to have Nicholas drop the money down the chimney.

Santa Claus, n., American name for the imaginary person who supposedly brings gifts to children on Christmas, Father Christmas, after the Dutch dialectical Sante Klaas, 1773.

Saturnalia, n., the festival of Saturn, celebrated by the Romans in the middle of December, the timing and some of its traditions became associated with the Christian holiday of Christmas. From the Latin.

Scrooge, n., a miser, a curmudgeon, after the character in Dickens’s 1843 A Christmas Carol, figurative use dates to 1940.

sleigh, n., a carriage with runners for transport over snow and ice, a sledge, from the Dutch slee, chiefly North American in usage, 1703.

solstice, n., one of two dates, usually June 21 and December 22, when the sun reaches the tropics (is furthest from the equator) and appears to stop in the heavens, the winter solstice was a common pagan holiday and is used today by some non-Christians as a substitute celebration for Christmas, c.1250, from the Latin solstitium, sol (sun) + sistere (to stand still).

stocking, n., a garment covering the feet, ankles, and lower leg, a sock, the stock- is related to the instrument of punishment and is a reference to the tight-fitting nature of the garment and its location at the ankle, 1583.

sugar-plum, n., another name for candy, a generic term representing no particular type of sweet, before 1668.

tinsel, n., a cloth interwoven with silver or gold thread and so made to sparkle, thin strips of silver or gold (or similar looking alloy) used as decoration at Christmas, from the Old French estincelle, meaning sparkle or flash, 1526.

turtle dove, n., a bird of the genus Turtur, also used in North America and in Australia to denote native birds on those continents, the turtle is an echoic reference to the cooing of the dove, before 1300.

Twelfth Day, n., Epiphany, the twelfth day after Christmas, c.1000, traditionally considered the close of the Christmas festivities.

Twelfth Night, n., the night before Epiphany, traditionally associated with merry making, c.900.

wassail, n. & v., a drinking toast, literally a wish for good health and prosperity, from the Middle English waes haeil and the Old English wes hal, c. 1205. By 1300 the meaning had transferred to the liquor drunk in the toast and the verb sense meaning to drink or carouse had developed. By 1598, the term came to mean the drinking done on Twelfth Night or New Year’s Eve, or a few years later to any drinking fest. A bit later, 1607, it had come to mean a drinking song.

wreath, n., a circlet, a fillet, something wound into a circular shape, from the Old English writha, c.1000. Wreathes of evergreens are traditional Christmas decorations.

Xmas, abbrev., Christmas, 1551. X (the Greek letter Chi) has been in use as an abbreviation for Christ since before 1100.

yule, n., the festivities associated with Christmas and New Year’s, Christmastide, from the Old English geol, orig. a pagan celebration transferred to the Christian holiday, c.900.

Language Death, Part 1

1 November 2004

The issue of language death is a hot topic among linguists. Language death is the disappearance of dialects from the globe, the reduction in the number of dialects that are spoken worldwide. Most linguists agree that we are in the midst of an era where languages are disappearing at an extremely rapid rate and that this will result in various dire consequences for humanity and culture.

In this short series of articles we’ll examine the question of language death, how large a problem it is, and what the consequences are likely to be.

What is Meant by the Death of a Language?
How can a language die? It is not a living thing. A language is said to be dead or extinct when no one speaks it anymore. (Some say a language is dead when only one speaker is left, for someone has to have another to speak it to.) A classic example is Latin. While it is still used in religious liturgy and a few other specialized purposes, no one is coining new words in Latin; no one speaks it to their children; no one is composing or reading new Latin literature. While Latin is well recorded and still taught in many schools, it is most definitely dead. Other languages die unremarked and unrecorded. They disappear from the face of the globe without leaving a trace.

Some linguists make comparisons to the extinction of species in the biological realm. There are intriguing parallels in description of the phenomenon, if not in effect. As a species dwindles in number, its opportunities for mutation and genetic diversity of its gene pool decreases. It is much the same with language; as the number of speakers of a language dwindles, diversity in patterns of speech do as well. Although some question the statistics, the number of biological species facing extinction is markedly on the rise. So it appears too with the number of languages at risk.

What happens to languages on the decline?
Languages do not simple blink out of existence like a light bulb burning out. There are changes that can be seen and measured as a language moves down the path toward extinction. As the speakers of a language dwindle in number, there are grammatical and vocabulary changes that occur.

Grammar tends to simplify. Inflections and complex moods are lost. As less literature, either oral or written, is produced, the language ceases to push the limits of what it can do. Usually, a language loses speakers in favor of another, dominant language. (This is often English, but not always so. Native South American languages, for example, usually lose out in favor of Spanish. Languages in China lose out in favor of Mandarin.) The dying language often adopts the grammatical forms of the dominant language—not totally, but to some extent.

Vocabulary also simplifies. New words and idioms cease to be used or coined. The use of and invention of new slang declines precipitously. Borrowing from the dominant language intensifies. Whole fields of vocabulary surrender to the dominant language, notably in business and trade and science and technology. The language becomes insular, focused on the home and becomes less and less used for contact with the outside world. This occurs even in languages that are not in any real danger of extinction. Dutch, for example, is a healthy language and is not going to disappear in the foreseeable future, but it too suffers from this to some extent.

In the final stages of its life, a language becomes a hollow shell of what it once it once was.

These changes are indicative, but not definitive. These same changes can occur in healthy languages. English, for example, has been undergoing grammatical simplification (i.e., losing inflections) for a millennium and rarely meets a foreign word that it is not willing to appropriate. But in healthy languages, these trends are countered by others. The grammatical simplification in English is countered by use of syntax to serve grammatical functions and burgeoning use of slang and idiom that convey subtle shades of meaning. And while English borrows words, it does not rely on any one, or even a few, as sources for borrowing.

How big a problem is language death?
To answer this, we first have to determine what the state of linguistic diversity is. Ethnologue (www.ethnologue.com) lists 6,809 languages, although this figure includes extinct languages, like Latin, that are used for ritualistic purposes. The total number of living languages that have native speakers is around 6,000. Of these, eight languages (English, Mandarin, Spanish, Bengali, Hindi, Japanese, Russian, and Portuguese) each have over 100 million native speakers. With just over six billion people in the world, these eight languages, a little more than one tenth of one percent of all languages spoken, are spoken natively by some 13% of the world’s population. In all, the largest 4% of languages are spoken by 96% of the population. Conversely, this means that 96% of all languages spoken today are done so by only 4% of the people in the world. These are the languages from which the endangered languages come from.

Only some 300 of the 6,000 languages have over a million speakers. Roughly 5,000 of the languages spoken in the world have less than 100,000 speakers. And more than half of all languages spoken today have less than 10,000 native speakers.

Are languages dying at a faster rate today? This is believed by many to be the case, but accurate statistics are not available to prove this. Languages have always died. From antiquity we know of Etruscan, Hittite, and Phrygian, languages that were extinct in classical times. What is to say that the rate today is faster than in previous eras? There are circumstances that lead us to believe that they are dying in ever-greater numbers, notably the fallout from European colonialism. Native American languages, for example are dying out in large numbers and being replaced by only three—English, Spanish, and Portuguese. In Africa, the mechanics of and reasons for language replacement are different, but there languages are disappearing largely in favor of English, French, and Arabic.

So, while we do not know if languages are disappearing faster today than previously, but languages are disappearing in large numbers in any case.

When is a language in danger?
There is no magic criterion for determining when a language is in danger. A language is not simply endangered because the number of its speakers is small. More important is the stability of the language. A language can be stable and vibrant with 1,000 speakers and a language with over a million can be in danger. Take Breton, the Celtic language of Brittany, for example. As late as 1905, it was estimated to have nearly one and a half million speakers. Today, Ethnologue says that only half a million speak it on a daily basis. This is a precipitous drop in just a century. In the case of Breton, it is economic opportunity that puts the language in danger; young people leave Brittany for jobs elsewhere and jobs at home increasingly require French and not Breton.

But clearly, the number of speakers are a factor. Dutch is under the same pressures that Breton is, yet it is not in danger. There are two differences. First Dutch is a national language and there are political and social pressures in its favor. But more importantly, Dutch is spoken by some 18 million people in the Netherlands and Belgium and by another two million worldwide.

Catastrophe can doom a language, especially one spoken by only a small number. The Irish potato famine beginning in 1845 killed one million and forced the emigration of millions more. In the process, it pushed Irish Gaelic to the brink of extinction. From some eight million speakers before the famine, it has dwindled to about a quarter million today and is only alive due to deliberate and sustained attempts by the Irish government to keep it so. Disease can also be a factor, even among large populations. Native American populations sharply declined as a result of European diseases and HIV/AIDS appears to be doing something very similar in Africa today.

Death is not the only effect catastrophes have on language. Catastrophes also cause dislocation of populations. People move, severing ties with old communities and learning new languages. And dislocation is not only the result of natural catastrophe. War and changing economics can also affect languages. Urbanization, the movement from rural communities to cities, also breaks ties with old communities and force adoption of another language. Dislocation can also be a result of economic opportunity. Globalization can bring economic benefits to a community, but also entice it to adopt a dominant language.

Languages are certainly disappearing from the globe at a rapid pace and are people are increasingly being drawn to a small number of languages. In future articles in this series we will examine what the significance of this is and what can be done to mitigate or stop language death.