"8 languages in Japan could disappear"

[Mulboyne]

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Asahi: 8 languages in Japan could disappear
With only 15 speakers left, the Ainu language is "critically endangered" while seven other languages in Japan are also at risk of disappearing, according to a UNESCO report. These eight languages in Japan are among about 2,500 around the world that have become or could become extinct, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's report said...The seven other endangered languages in Japan are Yaeyama, Yonaguni, Okinawa, Kunigami, Miyako in Okinawa Prefecture, Amami in Kagoshima Prefecture, and Hachijo in Tokyo. The first six languages are spoken on the Nansei island chain, which stretches from north of Taiwan and south of Kyushu, and Hachijo in Tokyo's Hachijojima island and nearby islets. ...more...

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[alicia454]

What purpose is served in keeping obscure rarely used languages, especially those without any type of written form that has some historical works attached to it? What is the harm in seeing those 8 languages in Japan disappear?

I am not bashing non-English languages, but to me, language is vibrant dynamic means of communication that also represents people's culture, society, and technology at the present time. And since we now live in a global society where we need to communicate outside of one area and even across the world, it no longer make sense to me to maintain obscure languages and local/regional dialects.

[GuyJean]

What purpose is served in keeping obscure rarely used languages, especially those without any type of written form that has some historical works attached to it? What is the harm in seeing those 8 languages in Japan disappear?

I think you answered your own questions with your next paragraph..

.. language is vibrant dynamic means of communication that also represents people's culture, society, and technology..

GJ

[American Oyaji]

What purpose is served in keeping obscure rarely used languages, especially those without any type of written form that has some historical works attached to it?

Alicia, do you speak any other languages? I mean REALLY speak them with a degree of fluency?

Speaking in a different language presents a different mode of thought and a broadening of one's horizons.

[wuchan]

What purpose is served in keeping obscure rarely used languages, especially those without any type of written form that has some historical works attached to it? What is the harm in seeing those 8 languages in Japan disappear?

Please read the quote below AGAIN. Maybe some of us have learned one or more of these "useless languages", as you say, and have gained friends in doing so. Have you ever been to okinawa?

Asahi: 8 languages in Japan could disappear
With only 15 speakers left, the Ainu language is "critically endangered" while seven other languages in Japan are also at risk of disappearing, according to a UNESCO report. These eight languages in Japan are among about 2,500 around the world that have become or could become extinct, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's report said...The seven other endangered languages in Japan are Yaeyama, Yonaguni, Okinawa, Kunigami, Miyako in Okinawa Prefecture, Amami in Kagoshima Prefecture, and Hachijo in Tokyo. The first six languages are spoken on the Nansei island chain, which stretches from north of Taiwan and south of Kyushu, and Hachijo in Tokyo's Hachijojima island and nearby islets. ...more...

[Gilligan]

While I can't say that I whole heartedly agree with Alicia, especially with the vehemence with which she stated her opinion, I can't say that I entirely disagree with her.

GJ, as usual, makes an excellent point, stating that one important reason for maintaining languages is that when a language dies a part of human culture dies with it. But then again hundreds of thousands of languages have died to this point in history. Doesn't make it right, I'm just saying.

AO, while your argument has been made, theoretically, many times, there is NO empirical evidence that a thought that originates in one language cannot also be had in any other language. That's kind of what makes them HUMAN languages.

And wuchan, I'm not sure what you're talking about because you seem to have missed the over all point--if a language is being learned and used by members of a growing community as a means of communication it is not considered an endangered language.

[alicia454]

Alicia, do you speak any other languages? I mean REALLY speak them with a degree of fluency?
Speaking in a different language presents a different mode of thought and a broadening of one's horizons.

Yes I do! English was a second language for me, I was born in Portugal, and Portuguese was my first. My dad was fluent in French, and my mom was Fluent in English, as second languages before they emigrated with me to Canada, so I learned those languages later. I do think and talk to myself in more than one language, and switch back and forth in my mind.

And yes, you are correct. To this day, I have some difficultly expressing some words and phrases into another. In most cases, I find that Latin languages are much richer in describing the subjective (especially feelings and sensations), and English is much better for describing more the objective (especially instructions and technical descriptions). There are many cases of a single word in Portuguese that does not properly translate, and would take several sentences to describe in English.

Now that being said, I do think that each language has multiple characteristics with regard to perception and expression, that can be grouped with other languages. (For example, latin languages are not that much difficult from each other, especially Portuguese and Spanish.) So the number of languages can be reduced globally, while still maintaining the overall global richness of linguistic characteristics. Even as a Portuguese, I would still be the first to admit that if Spanish were to replace Portuguese, there would not be any significant loss of characteristics with regard to perception and expression.

Many of these endangered and obscure languages have remained static for centuries, and cannot be used practically for everyday use in a modern society by people with diverse professions. Which is why they are dying out. Just as ancient Hebrew had to be modernized by cultural and religious zealots in the 19th and 20th centuries in older to be usable, and then adopted by a critical mass of of diverse people, something similar would need to happen to preserve these languages.

Personally I hate it, when parents don't bother to get off their asses to learn an obscure language themselves, but think it is okay to force their children to learn it for nationalistic, religious, or cultural reasons. If it is that important, parents should learn the obscure language first, and then help to teach it to their children along with formal (classroom) education.

[Mulboyne]

[Greji]

[quote="Mulboyne"]This is what UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura had to say: "The death of a language leads to the disappearance of many forms of intangible cultural heritage, especially the invaluable heritage of traditions and oral expressions of the community that spoke it –]

That's why it was a shame to see NOVA-Go disappear into the wings....

[wuchan]

And wuchan, I'm not sure what you're talking about because you seem to have missed the over all point--if a language is being learned and used by members of a growing community as a means of communication it is not considered an endangered language.

I did get the point. I love my friends down there mostly because they are so un-japanese. It is a way of life I would hate to be replaced by tokyo "culture".

[American Oyaji]

Gi'ls thoughts.

Gil, I didn't say a thought that can be had in one language can't be had in a different language.

I said that it presents a different WAY to think.

And Alicia, you present a good point. Especially your last paragraph.

[Adhesive]