The Never-Ending Language Disappearance

Written by: Jazmine Cuevas

When you think of someone’s identity one of the first things you can throw out there is the language that is spoken in that particular group of people. A country with just one language is a boring country. Different languages spoken throughout a country make a country unique and a melting pot. Indigenous languages are going extinct not just in the United States but throughout the world. When a language is still around you can learn a number of different parts of a tribe’s culture. A language is what they use to communicate, build relationships, and also how they express themselves and their culture. These languages didn’t just start out of the blue indigenous people’s ancestors have been using these same languages to communicate hundreds of years before.

According to worlds politics review, seven thousand indigenous languages are spoken around the world today, and four in ten of them are in danger of going extinct, a recent United Nations study warns. Today indigenous students are forced to attend schools native to the country in which they live such as an American typical school where they are having to focus and learn the regular American curriculum taught in English. There are not many schools that have the ability to teach students in their native language causing them to lose much of the language since they are not using it as much. Even if there is schools in the areas where tribes currently live many times they have to also focus on the American curriculum because of laws in the US as well as having the need to learn English to be able to have jobs if they want to leave the area in which they live. In most schools in the United States the languages taught outside of English include Spanish, French, and German which is common because these languages are on a rise yet, it is important to also include indigenous languages in the curriculum where they have people who speak them. 

At the rate that we are going the current languages that there is in the United States will diminish to an all-time low. “Before colonialism, approximately 300 languages were used throughout the country. Today, there are around 167 languages and estimates suggest that only 20 of these indigenous languages will remain by 2050.” (Pariona, worldatlas.com). When Europeans migrated to the United States, they violated many rights such as forcing them to convert over religious wise but also force them to learn English as well as taking away their culture. Languages are disappearing because the new younger generations do not have the means to learn these languages as the older generations once did. Older generations had hundreds and thousands of people in their tribe at the time and were constantly speaking the language. They also had the ability to learn in a school where tribe members were able to teach them therefore, they were able to fully emerge themselves in the language. When you lose a language, you are losing so much more such as the performances such as dances that are in that language.

  There is a number of ways in which we can help preserve the indigenous languages that are on the verge of going extinct. The United States government is doing little to help preserve languages from indigenous tribes. As stated by The New Republic, “For every dollar the U.S government spent on eradicating Native Languages in previous centuries, it spent less than 7 cents on revitalizing them in this one.” (Nagle, The New Republic). One of the easiest ways is to have a historian who is interested in the particular language or tribe learn about it. They can then teach other the language and the culture in an effort to bring it back to life. Another things that needs to be done is the availability of courses for students in grade school in order to help them learn more about the language and become fluent in it that way they can teach the newer generations the language. Tribes such as the Miami tribe have set programs out to immerse the language within their own tribes to make sure that it is around and preserved.

Sources

Lesson Nine GmbH. “What Was, And What Is: Native American Languages In The US.” Babbel Magazine, www.babbel.com/en/magazine/native-american-languages-in-the-us.

Martin, Nick. “What's Lost When a Language Disappears.” The New Republic, 12 Dec. 2019, newrepublic.com/article/155913/native-american-languages-disappearing-reauthorization-act-congress.

Pariona, Amber. “Endangered Native Languages Of The United States.” WorldAtlas, WorldAtlas, 2 Nov. 2016, www.worldatlas.com/articles/endangered-languages-of-the-united-states.html.

Stewart, Kayla. “Indigenous Languages Are in Danger of Going Extinct Around the World.” World Politics Review, 3 Oct. 2019, www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/28238/indigenous-languages-are-in-danger-of-going-extinct-around-the-world.