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2LOST WORDS: EXTINCTION AND ENDANGERMENT OF MINORITY LANGUAGES
IN THE GLOBALIZATION PROCESS.
Ochilova Maftuna Doniyor qizi
Teacher of English Faculty, The Department of Integrated English Course, Samarkand State of
Foreign Languages, Samarkand, UZBEKISTAN https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10814828
Abstract. This article discusses how globalization is contributing to language extinction rates, submitting the consideration of globalisation as being not the major cause of language endangerment. This article posits that globalization, being a natural phenomenon, could aid the development of minority languages.
Keywords: globalization, endangered languages, lingua franca, language loss, minority languages, multilingual.
The process of globalization has become very intensive recently. Indeed, the whole world seems to turn into one great community with a unified culture, lifestyle, and system of values. As the world becomes more integrated, linguistic diversity is plummeting at an unprecedented rate. Globalization causes weak and powerful languages to be in increasingly frequent contact. As majority languages become normative, weaker languages are thus increasingly at risk of being sidelined and lost. This occurrence has led to language shift, attrition, loss or even death of some minority languages. Forty percent of the world's 7000 languages at risk of disappearing, according to estimates by the Endangered Languages Project. This has invariably led to the erroneous conclusion that globalization is a threat to minority languages. But is there sufficient basis for such reasoning that globalization and global languages are primary drivers of recent language speaker declines at-risk languages? Can globalization be actually advantageous to the minority languages?
Indeed, the continental, and later global spread of certain languages is the clearest long term evidence of what global contacts have been achieved. However, such lingua-francas does no direct harm to minority languages. A distinction must be drawn between a lingua franca and a mother tongue at this point. When a language spreads as a lingua franca, this is a matter of convenience, making direct communication possible where before it was difficult because of a language barrier. The result is a larger community mediated by the lingua franca, with no corresponding loss of any other links. But when a language spreads as a mother tongue, this means that someone grows up with a language which is different from the mother tongue of one or both parents: some other mother tongue has lost a potential learner in the new generation. So whereas the spread of a lingua franca can only increase an effective 'global' community, the spread of a mother tongue may well decrease some local community. So only the latter contributes to language endangerment. [1, 2]
Moreover, several opinions have been expressed on the term 'minority languages' by accounting for several factors including small speaker population sizes and small geographic range. Accordingly, the risk of extinction of minority languages is directly related with demographic and geographic inferiority of nations. Thus, the minority language is largely discriminated against and neglected in the national, regional or even local scheme of things. To Adegbija, 'minority languages can be referred to as 'smaller - population language' which lacks among others genuine national or economic presence. To him they are comparatively or absolutely small in relation to the size of the population, they tend to be on the endangered-languages list; they tend to suffer national as well as regional and local neglect; small-population language group
"generally tend to be a handicap for social and economic advancement in professional life and are generally not very useful vehicles of communication in the public life of the nation concerned". Adegbija hence he prefers the term 'underdevelopment'. [3, 96]
The disappearance of languages can also be caused by internal forces such as a community's negative attitude or neglect towards its own language. Mufwene (2002) posits that 'rather than viewing the world's major languages as the killer languages, only local globalization has endangered or driven most languages to extinction. Linking language endangerment to colonization and globalization, he argues that even local populations have somewhat gained from language shift and that language endangerment or extinction takes place under 'peaceful conditions, through insidious process of assimilation'. [3, 97] Cultural assimilation and language loss are intricately connected, with one often leading to the other. But languages in a global scale must not be seen as only contributors for this trend. Otherwise, cultural assimilation can occur through various mechanisms, such as migration, intermarriage, or societal pressure to conform. As mentioned above, local population can take great advantage from process of assimilation such as the need to communicate effectively with the majority population or to access educational and employment opportunities. Moreover, 'consider a language like Esperanto, which only grows as a lingua franca: it brings with it few, if any, cultural presumptions: it exists purely as a means of communication, not a badge of membership of a tradition'. [1, 2]
Most languages, though, die out gradually as successive generations of speakers become bilingual and then begin to lose proficiency in their traditional languages. This often happens when speakers seek to learn a more-prestigious language in order to gain social and economic advantages or to avoid discrimination. In this line of thought is Agwuele (2010) 'who argues that it is pointless trying to save endangered languages in a globalized setting. She maintains that there is no need safeguarding a language that lacks functionalism. In this sense, a language that does not serve its speakers well in the sense of not functionally guaranteeing them the ability to survive; either, socially, politically, economically, etc. (especially in a globalized world) can be rejected for another by the speakers. When they do, their rejected language should not be saved'. [3, 97] Walker (2011) challenges language speakers to adapt to globalization which has become an imperative for survival. [4] However, the extinction of minor languages leads to the extinction of certain cultural groups and their individualities, turning the world into a global grey crowd. The meaning of the languages that are on the edge of extinction today lies far beyond the linguistic concept. Indeed, languages do not only serve as a means of expression and comprehension; their function is much deeper. Apart from being a system of signs, a language carries a certain mentality, the character of the community it is spoken by. Moreover, the changes in the community's life are inevitably reflected in its language. Community and language function as one organism, and when a language dies out, the community also stops existing. In fact, it can become a part of another community, or adopt another language, but losing a native language means losing authenticity with no opportunity for further development and life. Traditional knowledge, philosophy and the world view, transmission of traditional values and even medicine will become increasingly endangered especially for minority languages, in a globalized world.
Technological advancements also have been linked to the extinction of little-spoken tongues like the internet is accused by dint of a digital divide that locks out some groups and privileges others (and their language). Despite adverse effects of new technologies on language extinction, they can reversely reinforce the processes of preserving and revitalizing languages. Crystal (2000) advocates the use of endangered languages in electronic technology as one way of
reversing language shift. [5] Garland (2006) also posits that it is possible for globalization and new technology to safe-guard cultural identity while simultaneously allowing free exchanges of ideas and goods. [6] Current efforts include cataloging endangered languages on the internet and teaching them online.
Concluding that, it is over-simple, then, and misleading, to largely attribute globalization for language endangerment. The same is for global languages, since they are only an effect of globalization, and not necessarily in direct competition with languages that are endangered.
REFERENCES
1. Nicholas Ostler (F.E.L.) Is it globalization that endangers languages?
2. UNESCO/UNU Conference, 27-28 August 2008: Session: Safeguarding endangered languages. "Globalization and Languages: Building on Our Rich Heritage".
3. Professor Guo Tao. Globalization of English: Loss of Minority Languages and Cultural Destruction. The School of Humanities and Law, North China University of Technology, Beijing, China.
4. Titilayo Onadipe-Shalom. Globalisation and the Survival of Minority Languages: The Case of the Ogu Language. Journal of the Linguistic Association of Nigeria Volume 18 Number 1 2015 (pp. 95-109).
5. Walker, A. Teaching a Minority Language and related multilingualism in a globalized world. 2011. The case of Frisian at the University of Kiel, Germany. European Journal of Language Policy.3/2.175-196.
6. Crystal, D. 2000. Language death. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
7. Garland E. (2006), Can minority languages be saved? Globalization vs. Culture. The Futurist. July-August 2006. Edition Retrieved from www.omniglot.com/language/articles/minority_languages.php 15/5/2014.
