Gerard Meijssen wrote:
Brianna Laugher wrote:
The suggestion that teaching everyone English and
offering them
English works is equivalent to offering them works in their own
language is... really appalling. We may as well shut down all the
other languages and just offer Wikibooks "learn English" in x trillion
languages, right? I don't think so...
I am really glad that you picked up on this. This is very much
imperialistic thinking; to the winner all the spoils. If you want to
understand what the relevance is of native languages, you may want to
read what the UN has to say about this.
http://webworld.unesco.org/imld/res_en.html
The ideas there are very interesting once you strip away the diplomatic
verbiage. In particular the following:
5. Also invites the Director-General to undertake
the following
concrete actions to promote multilingualism and cultural
diversity on global information networks:
(a) to strengthen activities to make cultural heritage in the public
domain which is preserved in museums, libraries and archives freely
accessible on the global information networks;
(b) to support the formulation of national and international policies
and principles encouraging all Member States to promote the
development and use of translation tools and terminology for better
interoperability;
(c) to encourage the provision of resources for linguistic pluralism
through global networks, in particular by reinforcing the UNESCO
international observatory on the information society;
(d) to pursue further consultations with Member States and competent
international governmental and non-governmental organizations for
closer cooperation on language rights, respect for linguistic
diversity and the expansion of multilingual electronic resources on
the global information networks;
I would suspect that we are already among the most engaged of the NGOs
referred to in (d).
The notion that by providing information in English we
provide
sufficient information is fundamentally wrong. The English Wikipedia
does not provide sufficient information for people to understand their
culture. When it does provide information in the first place, it brings
it into a context that is decidedly outside of the culture of these
people. When you have read and listened to people explaining what
knowledge is lost with the demise of minority languages, you would
understand that the tapestry of human knowledge is become threat bare as
a consequence. Then again, when you do not know what you lost you did
not lose it right ? Wikipedia may become a collection of much of the
information that exists, when it does it may help us appreciate the loss
that is happening to us all and to our detriment.
Absolutely! The most important task for minority languages lies in
relating to their own cultures. It may be interesting to translate into
a minority language information about the latest discoveries in nuclear
physics, or the politics of nations on the other side of the globe, but
that has nothing to do with the soul of that language.
:-) Although in most cases I prefer not to comment on erroneous
idioms, I would like to point out that "threat bare" should normally be
threadbare" indicating that the fabric is deteriorating to the point
where one can almost see through it. It is nearly at the point where
darning may no longer an effective way of bringing it back to life. To
be sure, that which has become so impoverished is also barren of
threats, but that is another story. :-)
It has often been pointed out that the disconnect from
the cultural
values leads to a loss of cohesion and conflict. History also learned
that the "upper classes" adopted the language of the cultural oppressor
leading to eventual revolt. The sad thing is that much of the cultural
values are lost in the process and one of the slogans for such a
revolution is the promise for a cultural resurgence. A resurgence that
seems to be always bleak compared to what is considered the "golden age"
even if it was objectively not that great for the majority of the populace.
None have been so effective at sharpening the oppresor's language into a
weapon as the Irish, but they had already resisted Charlamagne's effort
to impose a common European script.
Ec