Comments on: Erasing diversity

By: Hasan

Hasan — Fri, 04 Nov 2022 12:04:47 +0000

Thank you for sharing this interesting article with us about diversity and language. Turkish language diversity is the opposite of linguistic diversity in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, Bangla is the main language. However, there are at least 35 indigenous languages spoken in Bangladesh by about 54 indigenous people. Sadly, due to the aggression of Bangla these old languages are losing their heritage and speaker. The Education system and common language for day-to-day use is Bangla, so indigenous people are somewhat forced to learn Bangla and use it as a day-to-day language. Some of the indigenous languages don’t have any written script, only their speakers are keeping them alive. So, these languages are losing speakers by generation. The Government is trying to save some languages, by publishing pre-primary textbooks in some languages but it doesn’t seem to be working. In a country where people sacrificed their life for Bangla, the situation of these indigenous languages is an irony.

By: Ingrid Piller

Ingrid Piller — Thu, 27 Oct 2022 10:51:59 +0000

In reply to YJ. Thank you, YJ, for introducing the Gelao language, which is also spoken in Vietnam - and, sadly, endangered in both countries…

By: YJ

YJ — Thu, 27 Oct 2022 02:50:22 +0000

Thank you for sharing us this interesting article. After reading it I was reminded of the demise of linguistic diversity in China. There are more than 120 languages in China, and more than 30 endangered languages are dying out one by one. China’s endangered languages are mainly reflected in minority languages, such as the “Aou” dialect of Gelao language. In the 1950s, although some children were using it, they were all Lun Lao-Chinese bilingual speakers. Due to the effects of inter-ethnic marriage, cultural changes, and language changes, in the growth process of these children who use Lunlao-Chinese bilingualism, Chinese gradually occupies a dominant position, and thousands of years of native language inheritance are fading in their generation. Now this group of people has entered middle age. Their children have learned Chinese from novels, and they themselves use Chinese as their main language. Their mother tongue level and ability weaken with age. In language surveys, it was found that they have forgot some basic words have been used by them. Some of them could remember through memory, mutual enlightenment and discussion. Such languages will soon complete their natural demise.

The demise of language prominently reflects the unbalanced development of society, politics, economy and culture. Due to the continuous spread of powerful languages, it has caused great pressure on minority languages in the external environment, and a large number of minority languages have become endangered languages. At the same time, people have different views and attitudes towards the phenomenon of language extinction. But it is undeniable that the demise of language is an irreparable loss of human culture. The diversity of languages should be protected, and the languages of endangered ethnic minorities should be rescued and recorded.

By: Ingrid Piller

Ingrid Piller — Mon, 17 Oct 2022 22:07:43 +0000

In reply to Bob. Thanks, Bob - Halfdan wanted a scrap of immortality ;-)

By: Bob

Bob — Mon, 17 Oct 2022 12:25:26 +0000

Thank you for this interesting article. I was especially fascinated with the runic inscription you mentioned. I think it’s a great example of how we humans love to leave behind little indicators that we have been here. And I can’t help but draw some parallels between this example and the Viking invasion of England, which contributed to the formation of the English language. I think, at some level, the Vikings that invaded England have left their marks on history, similar to how Halfdan has made his mark on the parapet at Hagia Sophia.

By: Ingrid Piller

Ingrid Piller — Mon, 10 Oct 2022 05:55:01 +0000

In reply to Em.

Thanks, Em! It’s not quite right to speak of language replacement – all languages change and finding older version of a language difficult is normal (remember how we read John of Trevisa’s reflections on language variation in class?) However, what happened with Turkish is that additionally the writing system was changed from the Arabic script to the Latin script; so modern-day Turks can’t read older Turkish texts …

By: Em

Em — Mon, 10 Oct 2022 01:29:52 +0000

Thanks for the eye-opening article. I’m not sure how I feel about replacing the original language with something else, as it seems to have affected a huge number of people even today. However, this had apparently happened, and it is part of everyone’s history. I know that my mother tongue Finnish has also experienced changes during the years after autonomy, because I have tried to read the text in the old Finnish language, but I did not understand everything. I remember reading something about the old Finnish language that contained loanwords and different sentence structures from other languages like Swedish and Latin and maybe German? Nevertheless, I know that Elias Lönnrot and his work Kalevala, has been seen as a significant factor of the Finnish language. Still, it is a fact that languages have to evolve but it would be useful if the change would include the older mode of the language as well, for the language to be understandable in the future generations as well.

By: KyKy

KyKy — Sun, 11 Nov 2018 09:20:33 +0000

Diversity is acceptable. Elimination of the original culture with that of the newcomers is not. I do feel that language is important when addressing Indigenous issues and people in general. It should always remain most respectful and concurrent with the community involved. For example, colonialism put many Africans in a predicament because they were grouped into countries where a multitude of languages were being spoken, so now they use the language of their colonizer as a medium. In my own view, the linguistic diversity of Africa should be maintained but for African people to truly appreciate their languages they must go through a serious de-colonization of how they view language and even how they view literacy.

By: Siqi Wang

Siqi Wang — Sun, 04 Nov 2018 03:38:06 +0000

The erase in linguistic diversification also occurred in ancient China. In the Qin dynasty, which is from 206 to 211 BC, Chinese characters were for the first time unified under the order of First Emperor of Qin. Before that, there were several different writing systems across the whole Chinese land. But what’s different from this article is that it was only the writing system, i.e. what a Chinese character looks like, that has been unified, which basically means that an officer was assigned to decide which Chinese character stands for the word “horse”, which for the word “bull”, etc.
Nowadays, there are 56 ethnic groups in China, each with their own cultural conventions and languages. Since the official lingua franca of China is Mandarin, all the nationwide tests such as the University Entrance Exam are conducted in Simplified Chinese, but most people still communicate with their families and friends in their own languages.

By: Anas

Anas — Wed, 19 Sep 2018 12:51:43 +0000

This article has made me reflect on my own country, Jordan. The main language spoken is standard Arabic. With 10% of the population are migrants, Arabic is still the predominant language spoken even by the minority community. However, when it comes to linguistic diversity, there are three varieties of Arabic spoken in the country: urban, rural, and Bedouin Jordanian. As the name suggests, the type of Arabic used reflects one’s socioeconomic status. My experience in Australia is somewhat interesting. Coming here to study academic English, as Australia is, to the best of my knowledge, an English speaking country. I say ‘to the best of my knowledge’ because my experience of certain suburbs in Sydney has actually opened my eyes to the multilingualism of some places. Some Western suburbs such as Lakemba and Granville have shown very strong middle eastern influences with some shops advertised in Arabic. Cabramatta was another interesting cultural and linguistic discovery for me. As mentioned in the article above, “Diversity is, in fact, the normal human experience, as the anthropologist Ward Goodenough, who passed away last weekend, pointed out back in 1976”.

By: Kim

Kim — Tue, 04 Sep 2018 01:06:39 +0000

Indeed, there are quite a lot of interesting parts that I can relate to. One of those is the story of Mehmed II that has been one of the popular heroic histories I have frequently heard from my teachers during my study in an Islamic school in Lombok Indonesia since a decade ago and red in some Islamic literature for a couple of times. He has been one of the role models for many Muslims in the world for his individual quality of knowledge or literacy about Islam, courage, good governance, leadership and also respectful of diversity and collectivity. There is one interesting fact that this article has added to my repertoire, that the event when he took the city has brought quite a big shift for the society at that time especially in regard to their religion and language and perhaps to their culture.
It is also interesting to see that the city has several languages that each of them is used for particular context. This, to a certain degree, has made the city rich of culture as it has come with the language its self, and might have contributed to the improvement of the literacy in the country.

By: Xinyue Ji

Xinyue Ji — Mon, 03 Sep 2018 10:16:44 +0000

我坚信语言多样性和许多其他形式的多样性已经开始被消除，因为全球化的影响越来越大，而且我们现在能够移动和联系来自不同地区甚至是现代技术进步的国家。例如，在许多中国地区，存在许多不同的方言，为了能够与来自其他地区的个人进行有效的沟通，个人必须说标准的中文。随着时间的推移，随着标准汉语变得越来越重要，家庭可能会选择不教孩子中国方言，这些方言将有助于消除中国语言的多样性。同样的原则可能适用于许多其他地区和语言。

I do believe that the diversity of language is decreasing and the reason may be due to the global influence and the power of English. In fact, many languages do not be inherited and I think it is a loss and problem. As a result, I believe it is significant to protect the language diversity rather than ruin it. Recording the languages enables the next generation to gain knowledge of different cultures.

By: tting

tting — Fri, 31 Aug 2018 13:01:36 +0000

The loss of language can lead to a loss of culture in a community. Trying to protect any language is necessary because language is a network of communication, while also asserting that community identity. In many cases, language helps to discover and develop many aspects of past traditions and customs. In conclusion, I agree with the view that although individuals may need to learn and use a common language to communicate with people from different backgrounds, they must still retain their own language.

By: Fern

Fern — Sun, 26 Aug 2018 13:17:14 +0000

I believe that it is important to consider the idea of erasing diversity is a planned act of the language planners. For instances, in multicultural, multilingual modern Australia, it is worth investigating how many languages can be seen in the linguistic landscape of the country. Also in what spheres are languages other than English used , in what contexts for what purpose are they used should be examined further in linguistic research. Therefore, diversity or super-diversity being celebrated while excluding the languages of these diverse groups is questionable.
On the idea of’ purifying’ languages, in my context, I can think of a movement called “Hela Havula’ which focused in purifying Sinhalese of Sanskrit (its root language) words where many erudite linguists, poets, educators took it to their hands to cleanse the language of Sanskrit words. An article on this movement can be found on
https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/the-gloomy-doom-of-the-sinhala-language-another-focus-in-need-of-nurture/

However, my belief is until multilingualism is accepted in a society, and promoted in education and in public services, a society cannot be called a diverse or multicultural society.

By: Shaher Mohammed Shaher Asiri

Shaher Mohammed Shaher Asiri — Sun, 26 Aug 2018 12:37:29 +0000

I think, many countries were effected on creating and changing on their linguistics diversity as a result of colonization. The colonial process may have impact to vanish local language or disappear their cultures which highly influence of their language.

By: Nana

Nana — Sun, 26 Aug 2018 11:43:50 +0000

The first time I heard the word graffiti was in school and we used between friends like a modern word. later in History I discovered that this was a really old word that was used to refer to a written or drawing made typically in a wall in some way hidden. the graffiti written by the Viking is one of many that probably we do not know because they were erased. The linguistic diversity has been crucial to develop the languages and communication systems we have nowadays as well as the evolution of languages, the multilingualism has always been influences by the religion and the government.