Nobody knows the total number of languages in the world. Some of them are very popular and are spoken in many countries: English, Spanish, and French. Others are mothr tongues for a lot of people: Russian, Chinese, German. But there are some languages that are called endangered.
An endangered language is a language that is at risk of falling out of use as its speakers die out or begin speaking another language. UNESCO says that half languages spoken today will disappear by the end of this century. It is terrible, isn’t it?
There are four levels of endangered languages:
Vulnerable: Most children speak the language, but it may be used mostly at home.
Definitely endangered: Children no longer learn the language as mother tongue in the home.
Severely endangered: Language is spoken by grandparents and older generations; while the parent generation may understand it, they do not speak it to children or among themselves.
Critically endangered: The youngest speakers are grandparents and older, and they don’t speak it very often.
Why do the languages disappear? Scientists think there are some causes for it. One of them is a natural disaster or a disease when people die. Examples of this are the languages spoken by the people of the Andaman Islands, who were seriously affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. Another reason can be a war or genocide of the nation. If the country or tribe is conquered the colonists force people speak another language. For example a lot of American Indians’ tribes lost their mother tongues after the British and Spaniards took their land. It can be also caused by political repression, when the government wants to have one national language in the country. This has happened in the case of many Native American and Australian languages, as well as European and Asian minority languages such as Breton or Alsatian in France and Kurdish in Turkey. And the most common cause of language endangerment is cultural, political, economic dominate of one language. This happens when small populations should use the language of majority to be successful. Examples of this kind of endangerment are the Welsh language in Great Britain, and Ainu in Japan.
Is it a problem? Yes, it is. That’s why UNESCO published "The Red Book of Endangered Languages” and collects a list of the world’s endangered languages there.
Do you think that there are no endangered languages in Russia? You are wrong, there lots of them! According to UNESCO’s 2010 edition of the uAtlas of the World’s Languages in Danger”, there are 148 endangered languages in the Russian Federation. Do you believe it? Most of these languages are still spoken in Siberia and Caucasus. But as native speakers prefer to use Russian and are not taught their mother tongues at schools these languages can disappear.
What can people do to stop this process? Governments should make well-planned and real policies to support small populations in their desire to learn their mother tongues and pass them on to younger generations.
The Polabian language
Native speakers of Polabian, progeny of Drevyan tribe, who lived on the left, West Coast of river Laba (Elba in German), used the language to the beginning of the XVIII century. The only common to us educated Polabian peasant from the village Zuten near Lyukhov-city (in the North-West of present Lower Saxony land, in those times in Ludenburg principality) - is Yan Parum Schultze (1677-1740), who began his life’s chronicle at the age of forty. The talented self-taught person wrote down in a careless order his existence’s doings. Sometimes he mentioned greater events, the weather and historical information, the biblical quotes and shared with us his thoughts. He decided to keep the Polabian for posterity, because it was too hard to speak and write in that language. "I’m forty seven, - he wrote, - When three persons and I die; nobody will know, what is Polabian for "a dog”...”
In 1756, the death of the last woman, who easy spoke Polabian, was pointed in the Church Books. Schultze has managed to save for us the spelling of the word "a dog”- it sounds like "ec” in Russian. At the same time as Schultze did, another well-educated German pastor Christian Hennig (1649-1719) composed Polabian vocabulary. We have some more vocabularies, that contain few tens or hundreds of
Polabian words.
The early feudalistic Polabian state became to form in the IX-th century. However, it didn’t exist for a long time: German feudal lords, led by their kings Henry I and Otton I began to conquer Polabian Slav’s lands. German conquest was lasting together with Christianization of Polabian Slays, who had built in the Arkonacity square heathen church with wooden sculptures of the Gods on the Rujan (Rugen) island. At the end of XII century the atomized Polabian state was once and for all conquered by The Crusaders. But up today there are Slavic names for biliberries (Zerneitsche), forest raspberry (Molaine), moss (Moch) in German dialects, as well as the names of some settlements: Rostok (Ростока), Leipzig (Липск,
Липецк), Lubek (oт ".любичи”).
The main distinguishing features of the Polabian are nasal sounds "o” and "a”, diphthongs; the letter "k” is changed with "t”and "d.” There were also hushing sounds in Polabian: "schiawack” is "человек” by Schultze.
The Sumerian language In the ancient Sumerians inhabited the swampy plain Schumer what is now Iraq.
They are the ancestors of writing. The language was spoken in the 4-3 millennium BCSumerian literary texts used 3,064 different words. More than thousand of them are used for only 1 or 2 times. The Sumerians drained swamps, have learned to regulate river flooding mastered agri&ilture. As trade Sumerian settlements became thriving city-state.
In 1997 BC Sumerians were forever lost their independence, and the territory was absorbed Sumer Power Hammurabi. However, the Sumerian science, technology and culture were at the time such distribution among the hathen that the new states that nerged in the Middle East, have become direct suecessors of the Sumerian tradition.
Sumerian was the language of science and religion.
A sample of text
transcription:
Bilga-mes-e mash-par-par-a shu-i-m + e-n-tag,
mash-si mash-dan-a gaba-(a) ne-(e) b + a-n-tab
translation:
Gilgamesh took the kid light,
Spotted goat, goat sacrifice to his chest pressed
Crimean Gothic Language
Goths - Germanic tribes speaking East German Gothic language in Il-IX centuries AD. In the first century, they made their way from Sweden to the Black Sea and the Danube River.
In the III century, one of the tribes migrated to areas of the Northern Black Sea and then to the Crimea. They spoke of the Crimean Gothic language - dialect Gothic language. /
For the latest information about gothic community in the Crimea dates to the beginning of the XVII century.
The existence of the language learned from the letter of the Austrian diplomat Ogier Ghislain de Busbeka. It was written in 1562 and published for the first time in 1589. The letter contains a list of 96 words and phrases, as well as a song on the Gothic language, which is heard from the Crimean diplomat, who were in Constantinople. Here are some of the words.
The word Krymskogotsky Gothic Bible English German Dutch
Apple Apel Apis (m.) apple Apfel appel
hand Handa Handus (f.) hand Hand hand
sister Schuuester Swistar (f.) sister Schwester zus(ter) House Hus -hUs (n.) house Haus huis
rain Reghen Rign (n.) rain Regen regen sing Singhen Siggwan sing singen zingen go geen gaggan go gehen gaan
The emergence of ready literature associated with the spread of them in the 4th century Christianity.
The Kurdish languages
The Kurdish languages are several Iranian languages spoken by the Kurds in western Asia.
It is also spoken in Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Armenia.
The Kurdish languages belong to the Iranian branch of the lndo-European family.
Among the earliest Kurdish religious texts is the Yazidi Black Book.
It is about the creation of the world, the story of Adam and Eve.
From the 15th to 17th centuries Kurdish poets and writers developed the language.
The Italian Maurizio Garzoni published the first Kurdish grammar in Rome in 1787.
The Turkish government placed severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish:
1. They asked to avoid showing children’s cartoons.
2. The use of Kurdish letters X, W, and Q is not allowed.
3. The Turkish government finally legalized the letters Q W, and X as part of the Turkish alphabet in 2013.
I think the world of the future will be dominated by a dozen languages because most of the languages will be dead.
Literature:
1. A.E. Suprun <The Polabian language>
2. www.slavyanskaya-kultura.ru
Participants:
1. Pustovalov Daniil, 5 B
2. Trepakov Stapen, 5 B
3. Ballah Gabriel, 4 V
4. Ballah Michael, 4 V
5. Shumkova Sophia, 5 B
6. Plekhanova Polina, 5 B.
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Сибирина Елена Рудольфовна © 2024
