The Linguists

THE LINGUISTS

The Linguist is stars Gregory Anderson and David Harrison - whom between the both of them speaks 25 languages. The two study endangered languages to understand the local language and perception of the world. Movie link here.

In Russia, many native and smaller languages are dying - as in the case of Chulym, a language spoken in the Siberian area, which has not had any documentation for over 30 years. The two researchers found that older people spoke Chulym - which is true of most endangered languages. Chulym was dying due to 3 major factors: 1) considered a "gutter" language - lower language than Russian 2) Children of the village sent to boarding schools for education were taught in Russian 3) There is no written form of Chulym. Russians considered Chulym to be weak - an analogy provided is that they are drunk from driving 2 drinks - which makes them weaker. Most speakers did not want to associate themselves with the language - as in the case of their driver - who turned out to be the youngest speaker of Chulym. The driver invented his own written interpretation of Chulym using the Russian alphabet and with the assistance of the 2 researchers and the community; the 1st book was published in Chulym. According to the researchers only 9 speakers of Chulym were found and only 5 were left alive in 2008. There may be 5 speakers left in their town, but I am assuming there are more speakers that may have emigrated from the town into more urban areas for more opportunities.

In India, a similar situation regarding language in schools. The language of instruction is English. In the Sora Village, which required an approval from the state government to visit, a common problem occurred between cultures - the act of giving. Due to the caste system in place in India, a gift should be related to their caste class. The eldest was insulted to receiving such a low monetary gift, but later happy with an increased donation. There are 300,000 speakers of Sora - most of the people have to learn another language to communicate with other Indians. Though 300,000 might seem like a large number in relation to India's population is 1,000,000,000 - is it small fraction of speakers. From their interaction with the native speakers we see their method of language analysis; by first learning body parts, color, then numbers. Sora has a 12 and 20 base numerical system - so if you count 13 - you would say 12 and 1 - and 33 would be 20, 12 and 1.

In Bolivia, the researchers wanted to learn more about Kallawaya - an endangered language with only 100 speakers for the part century. The Kallawaya speakers were also known to be healers with their extensive knowledge of botany. Through their analysis of the ritual performed, the researchers concluded that the language must have been transmitted as opposed to memorized as most of the ritual was "inaudible" and incomprehensible. Unlike most of the languages in the world, this language is not taught at birth. It is traditionally passed on through the male lineage. The elder would pass it on to their teenage son. This language has survived due to this way of teaching and also the local people's need for their herbal remedy. To learn more about Kallawaya - click here.

The major problems with studying endangered languages is time - languages are disappearing at an alarming rate. In the movie, people would state that they'd wish that the researchers came years ago when other fluent speakers were alive to share their knowledge. Another factor is that people perceive more economic advantages by learning another language and finally when children decide to give up a language - its normally irreversible.

Mahalo for reading.

Until next time.