Language, Status, and Loss

Lecture #2 | LLC 5160

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Is English in Trouble?

Living Languages

•approx. 6,000 in world today

•9 countries have more than 200 languages each (Australia, Brazil, Cameroon, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Congo)

Endangered Languages

•50% of languages may go extinct by year 2100

•90% of languages will be endangered

•As few as 300 may survive (Krauss, 1995)

Dominant Languages

•Chinese Mandarin 1.2 billion speakers

•English 750 million

•Hindi 490 million

•Spanish 310 million

•Russian 230 million

•Arabic 200 million

Language Domains

•Where a language is used by its speakers

•Domains include home, school, religion, mass media, government, internet, books, business, social clubs...

Domains of Mandarin

•All domains in Chinese heartland

•Government, schools, books in non-Mandarin provinces

•Trade, business, diplomacy in Asia

•Home life in overseas immigrant communities

Global English

English as primary language

English as importantforeign language

English as an officiallanguage

English Domains

•home and cultural life (inner circle nations)

•school and government (inner + outer circle)

•science, technology, medicine, higher education, tourism, trade, aviation, diplomacy, internet, youth culture (everywhere)

English Hegemony

•hegemony = dominance by one social group over all others

•English is most prestigious, highest status language on earth today

Language Status

•all languages are equally expressive, but...

•people perceive languages as higher or lower status

•status results from power of its speakers (economic, military, political)

•high status languages expand because of utility (economics) or force (imperialism)

Why Language Diversity?

•Languages reflect cultural and environmental adaptation

•Languages express identity

•Languages are repositories of human history

•Languages add to sum of human knowledge

A Zero-Sum Game?

•No! There’s something called... bilingualism!

•Most humans are bilingual

•English is essential in the modern world, but there’s also room for smaller languages

•English is not endangered by bilingualism

Do Americans need to be bilingual?

“If you wish to buy from us, you can speak any language you want, for we shall try to understand you. But if you want to sell to us, then you must understand our language...”

--Willy Brandt, Chancellor of Germany 1969-1974

“No Japanese businessman ever tries to operate in the American market without a command of English. The reverse, however, is not at all rare...”

--Florian Coulmas University of Duisberg-Essen

“The richest city in Latin America, the center of Latin American banking, finance, and trade, is the North American city of Miami!”

--Alejandro Portes John Hopkins University