Endangered Languages Podcast

The link to my Podcast is provided below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgH8eQd-XLY&feature=youtu.be

The only speaker of his tongue

Malouf explores the emotional and psychological effects of the hegemony of a language on a culture in such a way that allows the reader to sympathise with the protagonist. While considering the quote, "When I think of my tongue being no longer alive in the mouths of men a chill goes over me that is deeper than my own death, since it is the gathered death of all my kind", a sense of sympathy can be felt for the protagonist, a victim of an endangered indigenous language. He seems to largely attach his identity, ancestry and culture to the intricacy of this language, forming strong point of view against the extinction of languages. 

Further through the passage, Malouf explains the link between the land his people used to live on and the language they spoke, how their description of certain fauna or flora varied from that of the new language that has taken over. He claims, "The first landscape here is dead. It dies in this man's eyes as his tongue licks the edge of the horizon, before it has quite dried up in his mouth. There is a new one now that others are making." Essentially, through the loss of a language, their point of view, their culture is lost as well. As the protagonist watches his language disappear, he is also exposed forfeiture of all he has ever known. Although a colonial power is not directly blamed in this text, a hegemony of colonialism is understood due to the protagonist's lack of control of the introduction of a new language. 

Language Power and Resistance: Blog Post 1

How does the author of this piece use language and imagery when discussing language? And with what effects? Consider the following quote “Any language is as divine and endless a mystery as a living organism.” as an example.

Throughout the text, Grear constantly compares the extinction of language to endangered species, effectively personifying the state of language. His inclusion of Michael Krauss's beliefs further substantiate this this concept. "Any language is as divine and endless a mystery as a living organism. Should we mourn the loss of  a language any less than the loss of the panda or the California condor?", states Krauss. His bias as a linguist restricts him from understanding the positive aspects of having less a variety of languages. 

This glamorisation of language does not seem as important  as the globalisation of communication through language, as it can be very positive and make learning much easier. Although culture and language are interrelated, culture does completely not disappear along with a language when it dies. Language allows people to communicate their ideas and beliefs yet most languages should allow individuals to do the same. The extinction of languages also allows for the bridge of communication around the world to become stronger. Catalysis can in fact prove to be beneficial to the creolisation of cultures to further equalise all varieties of individuals. If more people were able to directly communicate and language barriers were not a factor, the spread of knowledge would be much swifter and accurate. 

On the flip side, the following quote “Any language is as divine and endless a mystery as a living organism”, allows for the consideration of the importance of a language. Like living organisms, no two languages or dialects are the same and each language is developed of meticulous details. Since languages have become so detailed and varied, losing a language would essentially be losing a portion of ones identity or beliefs. The differentiation between languages allow for each language to communicate different belief systems. The loss of this ability would be incredibly unfortunate.