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.