Hello again! In the last couple of weeks I’ve been talking about language death. This will be the last of three posts about the topic, in which I talk about how you can help with language death. It’s probably not going to be what you expect.
If you’ve just found your way here, you might not have read the other two posts. You might also just need a refresher. I talked about why language death is an important issue as well as why it’s so difficult to bring back languages.
So, let’s get into this last part, then. It’ll probably be a lot shorter than the other two posts.
Why You (Probably) Shouldn’t Learn a Dying Language
This one really depends on the group. As I discussed last week, some language groups might have a big problem with an outsider learning their language. If they don’t want outsiders to learn it, you probably won’t even be able to find resources for it.
Even if you are able to learn a dying language, it might not actually be as helpful as you think. Like I said previously, the connection between land, language, and culture is important and they should be revived together. Recordings and data about the language might be inaccurate and, as an outsider, there’s no way for you to confirm if what you’re learning is accurate.
This goes for any language, really, but you can’t properly understand the language without learning about the culture. That’s a very important part of the whole process. If there’s no way for you to learn the language from a genuine speaker and member of the culture, you won’t learn it properly. (This also makes it difficult for members of that language group to properly learn the language if it’s dying.)
Also, as a single outsider learning the language, you won’t be able to do all that much. Sure, you’re helping to keep at least some traits of the language alive, but a single speaker with no connection to the culture that speaks the language won’t help anybody. Without a connection to the rest of what makes the language important, you can’t properly understand the meaning behind the language.
The best way to help people learn the language is by helping their community.
Now, if you simply want to learn the language, and that community is open to teaching you, then by all means go ahead and learn it from them. My point here is not to discourage language learning but to be certain of your reasons for doing it and aware of the possible ramifications of doing so.
Learning the language might not do what you think it will for revitalization. But listen to what the native speakers teach you, and truly work to understand the background of the language.
How You Should Help a Dying Language
Like I said, helping the community is the best thing you can do. Talk to them. See what they need. Economic struggle creates more problems. If there are already people working to revitalize the language, offer your help.
I don’t plan on being political on this site, or taking any particular stance on anything related to politics on this site. That said, political activism is one of the best ways you can help, but you should do so in a way that will actually help the language community.
Linguists do important work with these communities and you should avoid interfering with their work. Don’t try vigilante revitalization. I repeat: Do not try vigilante revitalization. You will likely do more harm than good. Work with the community and with others to do the best work you can.
Be informed.
If you want to help but don’t want to take the time to study linguistics and language revitalization, try to work with the people who did study it. Find community groups working to help bring back the language and ask them what you can do.
If you do want to attempt language revitalization yourself, then go study it first. This is very important. If you genuinely care about revitalizing the language, then you should care about doing it right.
Another thing (and one of the most important) that you can do to help dying languages and their communities is to just spread awareness. Tell people about it. Share posts like this and others. Educate yourself on everything that’s going on. Research local languages near you that might need a boost and find ways to promote them. Talk to the community, too! They might know ways you can help!
Conclusion
I hope I’ve made it clear in the last few posts why this is such a big issue with few easy solutions. But spreading awareness truly is the best way you can help.
These communities need external support to keep their languages around. It’s important to be careful how you help them, though, so pay attention to the needs of these groups and others involved.
My goal in this blog is, as always, to improve people’s understanding and appreciation for language. I also try to do so in a way that is easy for people to get into without learning all the complicated terminology used in linguistics.
If there’s anything I can expand on, provide a source for, or clear up confusion on, let me know in the comments below or contact me privately!
As always, thank you for reading!
