Language death. Persuasive Essay
Language Death—why should we care
With the accelerated progress of globalization and civilization, language death today has become an undeniable and undisputed phenomenon as languages have been disappearing in an increasing rate (Guilherme 2013). Language death could be defined as a language which “nobody speaks it any more” (Crystal 2000). According to Colls (2009), the size of language pool is over 7000, but by end of this century, it is estimated that 90% of those languages “would have ceased to exist”. The major factors which directly pose the increase of endangered languages are various, ranging from natural disasters, cultural homogenization and assimilation, policies made by governments (Hetrick 2014) and influence of dominate and mainstream culture (Crystal 1999). Within the discussion of the importance and significance of languages, now there are two perspectives toward language death. The first one, based on the belief of the ancient traditions and Biblical stories of Babel that the proliferation of languages are penalty to human beings, is that the less languages in the world the better for mankind (Crystal 2000). However, the second perspective, which is more reasonable and convincing, is that language death is a serious and urgent problem that people needs to be consider and take action to save dying languages because different and various languages in human society represent indispensable cultural diversity, irreplaceable expression of identity and precious repository of history and human knowledge (Crystal 2000).
The first argument for saving endangered languages is that languages form cultural diversity which is extraordinary significant to human civilization. Nowadays most people have acknowledged the importance and significance of biological diversity, which stabilize and maintain ecological system in this planet. Same rules apply to the scope of languages. The difference in the case of languages is that the discussion here is about intellectual
With the accelerated progress of globalization and civilization, language death today has become an undeniable and undisputed phenomenon as languages have been disappearing in an increasing rate (Guilherme 2013). Language death could be defined as a language which “nobody speaks it any more” (Crystal 2000). According to Colls (2009), the size of language pool is over 7000, but by end of this century, it is estimated that 90% of those languages “would have ceased to exist”. The major factors which directly pose the increase of endangered languages are various, ranging from natural disasters, cultural homogenization and assimilation, policies made by governments (Hetrick 2014) and influence of dominate and mainstream culture (Crystal 1999). Within the discussion of the importance and significance of languages, now there are two perspectives toward language death. The first one, based on the belief of the ancient traditions and Biblical stories of Babel that the proliferation of languages are penalty to human beings, is that the less languages in the world the better for mankind (Crystal 2000). However, the second perspective, which is more reasonable and convincing, is that language death is a serious and urgent problem that people needs to be consider and take action to save dying languages because different and various languages in human society represent indispensable cultural diversity, irreplaceable expression of identity and precious repository of history and human knowledge (Crystal 2000).
The first argument for saving endangered languages is that languages form cultural diversity which is extraordinary significant to human civilization. Nowadays most people have acknowledged the importance and significance of biological diversity, which stabilize and maintain ecological system in this planet. Same rules apply to the scope of languages. The difference in the case of languages is that the discussion here is about intellectual