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Choosing linguistic autarchy
An indigenous language in southern Mexico is in danger of disappearing because its last two speakers have stopped talking to one another.
The two elderly men in the village of Ayapan, Tabasco, have drifted apart, said Fernando Nava, head of the Mexican Institute for Indigenous Languages.
Are they really the last two speakers left? The odd part of the story is this:
Dr Nava played down reports of an argument between the two Ayapan residents, both in their 70s. "We know they are not to say enemies, but we know they are apart. We know they are two people with little in common," he told the BBC News website.
They nonetheless have been nominated to play the role of linguistic saviors:
The indigenous languages institute is trying to encourage more local people to speak Ayapan Zoque, and hopes the two men will pass the language on to their families.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on November 21, 2007 at 09:11 AM in Current Affairs | Permalink
Comments
Interesting. I was wondering today what is the use of so many languages in the world. More importantly, why some of them are in rapid decline. Aside cultural dogmas, I can't see why some regret 'ancient indigenous languages' are disappearing. Do languages spoken only by a handful contribute to human knowledge, or they set apart people who know them?
Posted by: Lucas at Nov 21, 2007 10:33:05 AM
According to Wikipedia, the Zoque languages have around 90,000 speakers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoque_languages
Posted by: Eric at Nov 21, 2007 10:48:01 AM
The story of the two "last speakers" of some language being not-on-speaking-terms appears so frequently I wonder if it is something like an urban legend.
Posted by: mae at Nov 21, 2007 11:42:24 AM
Lucas: One reason I can think for wanting them to stay (at least for a while) is so that linguists can have enough time to study and document them. The semantics and syntax of each language potentially could have some features that we wouldn’t have imagined. This might be interesting to study in its own right but also might have implications for, say, computer-language development or text processing.
Posted by: Raul at Nov 21, 2007 12:23:13 PM
Different languages also contain a rich and diverse literature and cultural heritage that often dies with the language. For all we know the Etruscans had epic oral poetry that surpasses Homer in skill, but is lost forever because the Etruscan language died before the literature was written down. Similarly, how much history is lost to us forever when the language it was composed in (whether written or oral) is lost?
Posted by: Scott O at Nov 21, 2007 1:19:45 PM
If a tree falls in the forest...?
Posted by: Caped Crusader at Nov 21, 2007 3:22:09 PM
Shouldn't this be linguistic autarky?
Linguistic autarchy rather reminds me of Humpty Dumpty's approach to lexicography.
Admittedly, one easily leads to the other, so the distinction is not clear-cut.
Posted by: Giacomo at Nov 21, 2007 5:32:14 PM
A linguistic community is a network, and as Bob Metcalfe pointed out, the value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of nodes (the "network effect").
This would make Ayapan Zoque about 250 quadrillion times less valuable than Mandarin Chinese. Stick a fork in it, it's done.
Posted by: anonymous at Nov 21, 2007 5:33:41 PM
The indigenous languages institute is trying to encourage more local people to speak Ayapan Zoque
If the institute is actually that upset about it, they would learn it themselves or pay handsomely for anyone willing to do it. Easy enough to put out a press release asking someone else to learn a defunct language, not so easy to actually bear the large cost of doing it.
I myself will not miss the Ayapan Zoque language, nor most of the 99% of all invented languages no longer with us.
Posted by: ben at Nov 22, 2007 3:18:22 AM
Language is a free-for-all. To support grammar is to deny the inability to transmit one's experience using words. To renounce grammar is simply to disrespect a culture and pose a new one. Why attempt to save an event, such as the one described, from happening? -- if we surround evolution with softness and caring, only will power alone will be able to break through and provide new dreams. the rest will be sterile. What dreams come from language? what life comes from talking? each one of us already has linguistic autarchy: you can enact it by not understanding what you hear, and abiding in that there is no meaning in sound, nor in picture. in fact, it was language that played them out. same does not exist, yet belief in same does exist. which will win. do you care?
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