'Why Save a Language' analysis and response:
Identity, knowledge, and heritage are lost when a native peoples’ language dies. In the video ‘Why Save a Language’ the importance of language to the Native American people is widely discussed. It is a well known fact that the languages of the indigenous peoples are in fact dissipating rapidly, with 300 already categorized as extinct (video). The continuous loss of language earlier in the 20th century was because of the schools set in place for Native American children. All of these such schools basically followed the philosophy of creating a monolingual America, one advocating for the use of English. One Native expresses: “speak english or become less patriotic,” and that is exactly what it felt like. The government believed all Native Americans were uncivilized savages and they wanted the natives to be like white folk. Abuse was the norm in the schools for American Indians. Much knowledge was lost because kids were separated from their parents to learn causing a sort of psychological damage. The schools would force the kids to stop speaking their own language and when they tried to be their own heritage they were punished so severely, even some punished to death. Parents began to stop teaching their kids to speak it because they didn't want their kids to feel the same pain. This caused a cycle of languages becoming taught less and less in the household. Overall, there was a major human rights violation because language holds the key to much understanding of one’s heritage; so if one cannot speak their own language, then one’s human rights are violated.
As the Native Americans continue to lose their languages and constantly fall into a place of confusion, they are stuck wondering who they are. They struggle with knowing their now history, and this is because their language holds the answers to this. In the video, a man from the Lakota language explains one word brought to the language by the buffalo. He begins by simply stating the word and its meaning. But then, he goes into this extensive story of this particular word. This word is not just a simple noun, but the story of the buffalo comes along with the word. The speaker of the Lakota language experiences the word because of the historical story that goes along with it. This particular language supplies so much more information that english could with a single word. The same goes for environmental landmarks for other languages. If these languages become lost, the meaning of words that even white people use today will be lost, losing an extensive amount of knowledge. Language matters more than to just the head for these people. It matters to the heart, white people don't understand this because English is not endangered. Americans does not have to worry about rediscovering their heritage because it is in all of our history textbooks and we are living in our home. The languages of American Indians have no home to learn about their heritage if their language is lost because of white people. No one deserves to not be able to learn their own heritage. Language is all they have left to understand who they truly are as a single person, and as a people as a whole.
Personally, I think it is important to maintain a good understanding of these languages and save the indigenous languages from extinction because we can obtain so much knowledge that we might not be able to even comprehend without that language. One man in the video mentioned a metaphor about how a language is like a library, and if someone were to burn a library, then millions and millions of pages with knowledge on them would be lost. So if one wouldn’t burn a library, should one let a language with so much knowledge to share die? Every person deserves to be able to look at themselves in the mirror and know what their heritage is, whatever that means to them. Everyone should be able to speak with other humans in their own tongue, because there exists a deeper understanding of each other when speaking to one another in one’s own native tongue. The way the Native American peoples have been treated by the American government in the past is quite horrifying, so if not language for the knowledge that can be maintained and obtained, the least the American government can do is attempt to preserve what is left in the shambles of the native peoples.
Source:
Why Save a Language? The Montana Experience. (2006) https://youtu.be/x7BLBUS1IXc
As the Native Americans continue to lose their languages and constantly fall into a place of confusion, they are stuck wondering who they are. They struggle with knowing their now history, and this is because their language holds the answers to this. In the video, a man from the Lakota language explains one word brought to the language by the buffalo. He begins by simply stating the word and its meaning. But then, he goes into this extensive story of this particular word. This word is not just a simple noun, but the story of the buffalo comes along with the word. The speaker of the Lakota language experiences the word because of the historical story that goes along with it. This particular language supplies so much more information that english could with a single word. The same goes for environmental landmarks for other languages. If these languages become lost, the meaning of words that even white people use today will be lost, losing an extensive amount of knowledge. Language matters more than to just the head for these people. It matters to the heart, white people don't understand this because English is not endangered. Americans does not have to worry about rediscovering their heritage because it is in all of our history textbooks and we are living in our home. The languages of American Indians have no home to learn about their heritage if their language is lost because of white people. No one deserves to not be able to learn their own heritage. Language is all they have left to understand who they truly are as a single person, and as a people as a whole.
Personally, I think it is important to maintain a good understanding of these languages and save the indigenous languages from extinction because we can obtain so much knowledge that we might not be able to even comprehend without that language. One man in the video mentioned a metaphor about how a language is like a library, and if someone were to burn a library, then millions and millions of pages with knowledge on them would be lost. So if one wouldn’t burn a library, should one let a language with so much knowledge to share die? Every person deserves to be able to look at themselves in the mirror and know what their heritage is, whatever that means to them. Everyone should be able to speak with other humans in their own tongue, because there exists a deeper understanding of each other when speaking to one another in one’s own native tongue. The way the Native American peoples have been treated by the American government in the past is quite horrifying, so if not language for the knowledge that can be maintained and obtained, the least the American government can do is attempt to preserve what is left in the shambles of the native peoples.
Source:
Why Save a Language? The Montana Experience. (2006) https://youtu.be/x7BLBUS1IXc
No comments:
Post a Comment