Linguicide

This dissertation discusses French language policy from an ‘ecology of language’ perspective. By adopting a broad definition of language policy and applying Spolsky’s (2004, 2005) forces of language policy, consisting of (1) sociolinguistic situation, (2) national identity, (3) globalisation and the spread of English, and (4) interest in linguistic pluralism, to the case of France, it is argued that instead of approaching this case of language policy as a highly successful example of French standardisation, it is more attentive to the linguistic diversity of France to regard it as a case of language loss, or even a case of systematic ‘linguicide’.

La negazione di pari opportunità e pari diritti linguistici tra gli eurocittadini si traduce, dal punto di vista economico, in enormi vantaggi e passaggi di risorse solo ai Paesi madrelingua inglese. Eppure la perdita di sovranità linguistica dell'italiano in Italia a favore dei paesi madrelingua inglese non conosce soste.

Linguicide: How dying languages kill multiculturalism

19 MAR 2013, 4:32 PM  -  SOURCE: ANDY PARK, SBS

Half of the world’s 7000 languages will disappear in the next 100 years. But one professor of endangered languages says it’s a community’s many tongues that make it strong.

Australia has set a record for ‘linguicide’, with 92 per cent of Indigenous languages fading or dead, according to one linguist who has used Harmony Day to emphasise the role language plays in community and culture.

Professor Ghil'ad Zuckermann says that language plays a lead role in people's identity, cultural autonomy, and even their wellbeing and mental health, and should be seen as something that brings Australians together.

"While it's very easy for people to believe we should all be speaking English in the 21st century, the reality is there are dozens of languages spoken in Australia today by people from fascinating and multifaceted backgrounds," Professor Zuckermann says.

More than half of the world’s approximate 7,000 languages are at risk of disappearing in the next 100 years.

UNESCO LANGUAGE ENDANGERMENT SCALE

Vulnerable: Most children speak the language, but it may be restricted to certain domains (e.g., home).

Definitely endangered: Children no longer learn the language as mother tongue in their home.

Severely endangered: Language is spoken by grandparents and older generations; while the parent generation may understand it, they do not speak it to children or among themselves.

Critically endangered: The youngest speakers are grandparents and older people, and they speak the language partially and infrequently.

Professor Zuckermann says that cultural harmony happens because of language diversity, not in spite of it.

"Harmony and reconciliation can be achieved as a result of reclamation of language," he said.

"This is especially true for Aboriginal people who are working to resurrect their ‘sleeping beauty’ languages, which were often subject to linguicide, language killing.  Language revival empowers them, reinforces their sense of purpose in life and is liberating."

"We certainly do not want people to lose their cultural independence and, in many cases, their spirituality, all of which go hand in hand with language.  The death of language is the death of the soul."

TOP SPOKEN LANGUAGES (With percentage of speaking people as world population)

1.    Mandarin - 14.1 per cent
2.    Spanish - 5.85 per cent
3.    English - 5.52 per cent
4.    Hindi - 4.46 per cent
5.    Arabic 4.23 per cent
6.    Portuguese - 3.08 per cent
7.    Bengali - 3.05 per cent
8.    Russian - 2.42 per cent
9.    Japanese - 1.92 per cent
10.  Punjabi - 1.44 per cent

Source:http://www.sil.org/

MOST ENGANGERED LANGUAGES

UNESCO figures as of 2010 show that there are about 19 languages that have only one speaker, many of which originate from South America: Apiaká, Biky, Bishuo, Chaná, Dampelas, Diahói, Kaixána, Lae, Laua, Patwin, Pazeh, Pémono, Taushiro, Tinigua, Tolowa, Volow, Wintu-Nomlaki and Yahgan and Yarawi.

QS Ahmadi is honored to be referenced in the Finnish scholar and activist's Dr. Tove Skutnabb-Kangas' (coiner of 'linguicism') extensive bibliography on "multilingualism, multilingual and Indigenous/ tribal/minority/minoritised (ITM) education; linguistic
human rights; endangered languages, their maintenance and revitalisation; linguistic genocide and crimes against humanity in education; linguistic imperialism and the subtractive spread of English; and the relationship between linguistic diversity
and biodiversity. And the state of the world, and our future. Last updated in April 2020."

Scholarly literature highlights the systematic actions taken in the modern Middle East to destroy the Kurdish language. With a primary focus on Turkey, scholars have described this process as a policy of linguicide, or language genocide, which is “the extermination of languages, an analogous concept to (physical) genocide.”2 In contrast, similar processes at work in southern Kurdistan (Kurdistan of northern Iraq) have often been described as “linguistic suppression.”3 This paper argues that linguistic suppression does not adequately describe the Iraqi Kurds’ experiences. Rather, linguicide better captures the practices of cultural genocide that have targeted this group. This paper focuses on how the Kurds in modern-day Iraq were subjected to linguicide under the Language Education Policy (LEP) from 1932 to 1991. This policy was established during the monarchy (1921–1958), and advanced through the time of Saddam Hussein’s regime (1979–1991).4 While much scholarly work has associated the process of linguicide with the birth of a nation-state,5 this article further argues that linguicide in the Iraqi Kurdish case predates the formation of the Iraqi nation-state.

De Lingua Othomitorum Dissertatio by Manuel de San Juan Crisóstomo Nájera was the first linguistic study of modern Mexico and it paved the way for the study of original languages both within the academy and within other state institutions. The text also marks the end of a three-century-long interaction between Latin, Ancient Greek and indigenous languages and reveals a time in which Latin had lost its prestige and was becoming a language deemed to be of philological and academic interest only. A case can be made that Nájera’s Dissertatio foreshadows the epistemology currently used to explain linguistic politics in present-day Mexico City, which places not only an urbanised nation state at its core, but also continues to privilege Indo-European western languages over hundreds of living Mexican original languages. Focusing on the contact between Spanish, Latin, Ancient Greek and Hñähñu, this paper will analyse the responsibility of contemporary classical scholars to engage with the original languages of Mexico and will argue that this engagement can also lead to the decolonisation of classical studies themselves.

Pirsgirêka ziman, ji çavkaniyên olî (Birca Babîlê) bigirin heta tekstên fel-
sefeyê yên îro jî berdewam e. Bes a herî girîng desthilata ziman an jî zimanê
desthilatê bûye. Bi cureyekî ziman pêk hatine, lê ya balkêştir bikarinana wan
e. Di her çax an jî demeke dirêj de ziman bûne amûrên desthilatê. Îro zi-
manê frensî û îngilîzî ev erk hilgirtine ser milên xwe. Ji ber ku her du ziman,
yên mêtinkariyê bûne. Li dijî wan hewldanên serkeftî peyda bûne. Bo mînak
pişt-mêtinkarî (postcolonialism), madun (subaltern). Bes babeta me li ser glot-
tofobi (cudayîkirina ziman) û linguicideê (qirkirina ziman) disekine. Bo rewşa
kurdî, ya duyem girîng e. Her wiha ev du alî, dê li gorî dabeşkirina Eflatûn
a gengeşî (statis) û ceng (polemos)ê bên nirxandin û em ê bigêhin encameke
erênî bo berjewendîya kurdî. Bo peyvên sereke em dikarin cudayîkirina zi-
man (glottofobî), qirkirina ziman (linguicide), gengaşî (statis), ceng (polemos)
û Birca Babîlê rêz bikin.

The Pijao language was lost sometime during the last half of the 20 th century and exactly how the language was lost has yet to be discerned. Using data from an investigation that examined perceptions of the causes and effects of the Pijao linguicide among focus groups of different ages in the Pijao community at Natagaima, Tolima, this article examines two themes that came out of the focus groups – how the language was lost and how the community has suffered since the loss of the Pijao language. The results show how loss of their native language has disadvantaged the Pijao as a result of pervasive linguistic essentialist attitudes pervasive in the country. At the national level, the Pijao have problems in terms of recognition from other indigenous groups, with many refusing to recognize the indigeneity of the Pijao on the grounds of lack of language, and at a local level with mestizos arguing the same. Additionally, the author offers a tentative hypothesis for the loss of the Pijao language in the south of Tolima – that the creation of indigenous reserves may have hastened the loss of the language.