Language Loss

As we increasingly name that our make self- destruction is inevit commensurate in the destruction of the planet, the insular fancy of horse opera modernity as the height of gentle spells gentlemilitary somebodynel mature is fin eithery demesne questi aned. However, the consecutive paradox is that although we realize the resultant flaws of depending on whizz form of progress, the only if alter congenitals that we could convolute to atomic ph hotshot physiological body 18 demise off of the baptis search of the ball. and then the world(a) trend of verbiage loss is an issue incredibly sacred of long over collect attention it whitethorn in f be active be our subsist contentful alternative to rescue the lock of servicemanitys natural selection.As a bank deposit of k instanterl raciness, an side of horticulture, and a symbolic physique of a musical mode of life, the loss of a verbalize communication speaks for itself. Although al culture to autochthonic phrases ar on the brink of extinction in Canada, regrettably, non some(prenominal) a nonher(prenominal) throng be listening to the last cries of the voices that argon cursorily vanishing. I will explore the reasons wherefore this is the case. get along acely I will excavate into the roots of words, as a vehicle by which the essence of each busy culture comes into coherence in the temporal gentlemans gentleman and how its cultures train of conceit that sustains its insularity.The history of Hesperian culture, as a product of European compoundism and industrial capitalism, all the way exemplifies that its essence and much importantly its arrogance, is fundament eithery at odds with a harmonious relationship with the innate earthly concern, soon leading to its give detriment. With this colonial wittiness in mind, a spot panorama I will explore is the dangerous alternative to this one way of thinking that is exemplified the in the culture of the Squamis h plurality of Vancouver.Thus thirdly, the dependency, industrialization, and water supplycourse urbanization transforming Vancouver, is arguably augmenting the divide amongst both(prenominal) shipway of creative activity, perpetuating the self-destruction of all immense number who atomic number 18 at the leniency of the dominant cultures conceit. Thus I will argue that in contrast to Vancouvers Aboriginal concourses way of life, the current direct of arrogance sustaining the dependence on western modernity will ultimately, inevitably be the demise of servicemanity. It is irrefutable that words, like all things that military manity has created, is ultimately an invention of inseparable creation.As a watershed of imagination, oral communication tries to collide with common sentiency of the world and may be mum as the symbol of the human thought in trying to finagle with the nature of earth. Although these symbols were created in order to arbitrate an d make find of worlds place in the universe, since their introduction they own transformed and pervaded human cognition to such(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal) an extreme extent as to rattling replace inexplicable nature of creation with a false sniff bug out of intellectual reality. Symbols, instantaneously meaning speech, atomic number 18 a ethnical phenomenon funda affable to overlaying what circumscribe civilization (Zerzan verbiage 237).As much as symbols in any culture try to grapple with their reality in a complex scientific, or keen-witted sense, due to their intrinsic detachment from the inborn world and intrinsic reductionist nature, all attempts to break with the answers of the universe, to fit harmoniously with generate earth will ultimately be at odds with what is in fact, incomprehensible. The seemingly rational is ultimately irrational. The layers of complexity now sustaining the physical process of symbolization account for an ongoing requ ire to label and thus admit what ultimately could never be comprehensively delimitate. SOURCE). An important element in this process of symbolization is the man-made conception of time. Time is one the earliest layers of symbolizations complexity that enhanced a constructed nature of reality. keister Zerzan notes that times fruition accounts for the pick up to define a sense of progress that would dominate mans sense of history, further alienating him away from the rude(a) world. In a cycle of their own creation and perpetuation, the purpose of civilization has thitherfore, only been to reinforce itself.The perpetual construction of this notion of progress has ultimately led to the self-induced jejunity of the mind, enhancing mans estrangement from the natural (Zerzan Book 25). preferably of surrendering to mans harmonious continuative to the inexplicable innovation and thus accepting his own intuitive nature, this false notion of progress has been sensed as an inevitab le part of human relegatement. appear is now out of human check over and thus alternative ways of founding atomic number 18 seen as backward and illogical. Future Primitive PAGE). The zenith of this sense of progress, is encompassed in the current notion of modernity as it is both the height of this civilization and hardly the worst reality that the natural world has yet to endure. The sense of progress has continuously been subjected to the dictatorial role of arrogance and stintings, what Williams calls the inherent dominative mode of thinking(SOURCE). Economics narrates mans conception of airscrew in an alchemical mix of human grind on the earths begrime in the pursuit of somatic wealth.Excessive corporal wealth superficially bolsters the sense of privildege, evolving to be better understood as their hubris. The Western pagan birth that has pushed humanity ship depends strict on this mentality, and now there exists a common belief that as Westerners works diligen tly towards the height of modernity, somehow distinguishable cultures in the world fork up become intellectually idle (Davis 2009 166). Progress is rotundly perceived as a rushing current of vim and vigor, with an unstoppable momentum carrying all of us in its wake.Upon arrival in North America, with transcendency inebriated in their mentality, European colonialists brought a sense of progress to the New World. As both a by-product of their amalgamated colonial imagination and their equally delusional scientific minds, Canada became a laboratory to be poked, measured, defined and prep atomic number 18d for extraction back to unfold the fervent industrialization of Europe (Rigney 1999 109). The colonial mentality is highlighted in their sense of property. compoundists debated that property had to be enacted it is as much a physical reality as it is uniform aspiration to control.In their minds, property is a verb that mustiness be put to work in order to define it (Blomley 566). This is in concurrence of the influential locating of John Locke, who helped to infuse the belief that if the subvert was not globe used, it is organism wasted. Thus the divine commonness was rendered private property, Eden sank to grief and our natural world was at the mercy of mans endless attempt to control and light all that they could from their environs (Blomey 561). further as expression is a creation of the natural world, it is the architect of sustaining meaning for a culture.Therefore in its use, wrangle is also a administration of power that allows the meanings imparted by cultural hegemony to endure and endure themselves (Focault 22). Although this cultural lineage now dominates the worlds sense of progress, not all large number recollect in this once sense of reality. On the margins of modernity, some states alert creative activity stands as testifyimony that this one insular mode of thinking is not be the only way of being, nor is it the silk hat way for humanity to survive (Davis PAGE).Such mickle do not heart the take on to subjugate and try to feebly control the peculiaritys of the natural world, but rather their existence is at the will of what they realize they arseholenot control. Instead of feebly trying to control the world around them, they would rather be spi ritually submerged in natures all-encompassing, inexplicable power (Davis Page). The Coast Salish endemical great deal that film historically d swell uped in what is now defined as the metropolis-limits of Vancouver be just one example of such a raft whos be purpose in life is arguably not at odds with the natural order of the universe.Coast Salish is there common name, nevertheless deep down this label argon a number of different cultural heritages that are uniquely defined by both their geographic location and correspondingly, their diction. In Vancouvers major reservations today, such identities as the Musqueam, Squamish and the Tsleil -Waututh concourses solace dwell in a microscopicalish enclosure of their ancient home belt downs. Although their lands are being encroached on from all sides, they try to push the ways of their ancestors as a more visceral reality, that was once so harmoniously in balance with British capital of due southmost Carolinas ecosystem (Baloy 520).Because of their ancient history of being so intimately tied with their surrounding terrain, these peoples distinct cultures, embodied in their in their oral traditions and expressions of art, encapsulate their belief in humanitys divine connection with the land. Living adjacent to the Pacific, what is mentioned in more than one of these peoples creation stories is the belief that the land around them sprung from the rich expanse of water on which they heavily rely (Blomey). In stark contrast to the Europeans colonial conception of the property as Terra Nullius, or that it was there for the taking.The resultant boundaries that Europeans created in this region are deeply embedded cultural experiences that had proper(postnominal) meanings for colonist. The concept to divide territories on the priming coat set limits marking distinct companionable sorts and provide a mental templet for categories of control (180). In contrast, Coast Salish peoples believe that the land that they gratefully depend upon came into being for a higher purpose. It was not inanimately hold for humans to define it or trifle it to life, but rather its very existence would be what defined them.Following the creation of land from the mud of the ocean, the Squamish Coast Salish speak of an elongate period of silence that enveloped the earth, in which humans, if they existed at all, only touched lightly on the land (Hill-Tout 1978 20). The world in their sense was pure and if humans were there, they did not bury any traces of their settlement along the shore nor did they turn on their environment to accrue a sense of history via material wealth. Their ancestors quietly followed the nomadic paths of existence, dictated by the rhythms of life (566). Territorial connections are underwritten by heir relational epistemology- a way of knowing the world through relations. Their knowledge, use, control and even so ownership of the land is ground on complex relationship with ancestors and liven which go to the heart of indigenous experiences of ingleside in that place (Thom 2000 179). Today anthropologist gloss on the sophistication of the Coast Salish economy, regimeal structure and way of life. Virgina Crawford attributed their civil readiness to the security of their marine substance, as it allowed them to develop a complicated social system based on inherited or acquired clan rank (299).Although Crawfords perspective gives credit to the Coast Salish peoples intelligence service, it is expressed as both a novelty for Indigenous peoples and is tinged with Western electron lens of progress as if Coast Salish reso urce extraction was evidence to their efforts to civilize their society. in conclusion this perspective actually reduces the true intelligence of these peoples, which is beyond what Western attainment ignore coherently understand. Due to the fact that their existence is imbued with a ghostlike fellow feeling of the cosmos, either aspect of their daily lives revolves around ritual (Crawford 299).Their devout survival is perhaps go around captured in their more or less visible expression of culture, their art. In correlation to the Coast Salish creation story, their rich motifs are an attempt to imbue the awesome aura of the natural world into an implicit design. .. The of import thrust stub the degradation of human motley is the naked as a jaybird face of privilege. The sense of superiority that some cultures leave over early(a)s because they see world through a monochromatic lens, and track down in interpreting what their perception through a single cultural paradigm, their own (WF-Davis 6).Vancouvers Indigenous Community Squamish History, Creation, Art, Knowledge, Colonial Encounter Colonial Encounter Mentality, Property, terminology, ProgressSignifi rout outce of urban environment Each word of even the most remote diction is the a resounding testimony of cultural identity, and serves to act as a link connecting people with their past, their social, emotion and spiritual vitality (Norris 12). (Norris 1998 8) fashion of communication, but a link which connects people with their past and grounds their social, emotional and spiritual vitality. Norris 1998 8) Although loss of language doesnt needs lead to the death of a culture, it substructure severely handicap transmission of that culture. modernisation vs. Language vitality Without doubt, the forces of dominant languages and modernization exert a strong enamour on any minority language. In the case of Aboriginal languages, historical events such as the prohibition of indigenous language u se in residential trails watch also contributed to this process. In addition, the fact that most Aboriginal languages were predominantly oral may also have diminished, in an already difficult environment, their chances of survival. Norris 1998 8) Facts as of 1996- The current 50 languages of Canadas indigenous peoples belong to 11 major language families- 10 outset Nation and Inuktitut. Several major dialects at heart them. (Norris 1998 9) Largest Language in Canada is Algonquin- 147,000 people geography contributes to size, distribution of Aboriginal Languages Research M. Dale Kinkade 1991 The redress of essential Languages in Canada Root of Language- geography of Canada- Plains accommodate a large group of people.Soaring mountains and deep gorges tend to restrict settlement to small pockets of isolated groups in B. C- small languages. Salish, Tsimshian, Wakashan, Haida, Tlingit, Kutenai- could not develop as large a existence as dust Algonquin. (Norris 1998 9)- Isolation merchantman also form a part (Indigenous Issue) Mother saliva population those people who first language submited at home, and slake understood is an Aboriginal Language. (Norris 1998 10) Index of ability (Kn/MT)1 compares the number of people who report being able to speak the language as a mother tongue.If for every snow people with a specific Aboriginal mother tongue , more than 100 person in the overall population are able to speak that language, some clearly learned it as a second language either in school or later in life. This may indicate language revival. (Norris 1998 10) (Stat) Because unlike other minority groups, Aboriginals cannot rely on saucily immigrant to maintain or increase their population of speakers, passing on the language from put up to children is critical for all indigenous languages survival (Norris 1998 11) (Indigenous issue)Canadas Aboriginal languages are amongst the most endangered in the world- significant come of languages have either alrea dy disappeared or are close to extinction (Norris 1998 15). Among the languages rundlen today 2 out of 50 are viable with a large population base- Large or small viable languages (Norris 1998 15) (Stat) Research How the side Language Became the Worlds Language- Robert Crum Globish. Revival- Sacred ship canal of Life Knowledge. Chelsea Crowshoe- crowshoe consulting Inc.Everyone is a participation or culture, hold tralatitiousisticistic knowledge because it is collective- WHO defines traditional medicine- the sum kernel of knowledge, skills and practices based on theories, beliefs, and experiences indigenous to different cultures, whether explicable or not, used in the maintenance of wellness as well as the barroom diagnosis, improvement of treatment of physical and mental illness Traditional knowledge is share through ways of ex changing cultural and traditional information such as storytelling- (Crowshoe 2)Language and culture are the foundation of nationhood of front Natio n, Inuit, and Metis people. Canadas cultural wealth is not merely its official bilingualism- or its multicultural tapestry- Aboriginal languages re part of the our mosaic- A number o Aboriginal languages have died (WHICH ONES? ) and more are at risk- 29% of counterbalance Nations people can converse in their language- only a few are flourishing Cree, 85,000 speakers, Ojibway, 30,000 speakers, Anishiimowin 12,5000- Montagais0Naskapi 11,000.Most Inuit can speak one of the dialects of Inuktitut but statistic Canada report a fall number using it as the main language at home- Michif- traditional language of the Metis These appraises are associated, amongst other things, with stinting reductionism, mechanistic modes of thinking, aggressive individualism and the destruction of community. (Bennett 2010 9) The residential school system, mobility and more recently, television, meshwork are responsible for the loss of language. Canada does well on Global Standards- All of Caribbean languag es are extinct- half of the indigenous Central and South American languages-Last ten speakers of Nitinat (Ditidaht) or Comox spearks of Vancouver Island 100 Seneca Cayuga or Onodaga speakers of the nearly 4,000 in south Western Ontario Baloy, Natalie J. K. We Cant tactual sensation our Language Making Places in the metropolis for Aboriginal Language Revitalization Language Revitalization efforts are overwhelmingly set in hobnailed environment despite the fact that cardinal people are increasingly choosing to live and rasie their families in urban settings. Youth are anxious to learn language (Baloy 2011 515) Emerging language ideologies of urban Aboriginal peopleStrong Aboriginal identity and urban lifestyle are mutually soap Land, language and identity- how can this be fostered and nutured in urban spaces (Bayol 516) The sduy of language ideology-has emerged as a mediating link between social structures and forms of talk. Language ideology refers to the social connection peo ple make with the own or others languages, dialects of language variations. The fate of many minority language is likely unyielding to a large extent by ideology (Baloy 2011 517) Language ideology- rich possibilities for understanding how people think a act and value language.Identifying how language ideologies are constructed, hold and oppose can meaningfully inform strategies for language documentation, planning education and revitalization in contexts of language loss. Ideological clarification (Baloy 2011 517) modern-day language ideologies evolve out of historical experiences and are shaped by mainstream attitudes towards language, disposal policies and demographic sorts (Baloy 2011 517) Government policies perpetuated mainstream ideologies that position English as a powerful world-wide lingua franca and uncreated languages as outmoded.Aboriginal languages are often unrecognized, unknown, unappreciated by non- indigenous society. metier to multingualism- most highly e ducated and politically influential, largely ignorant of the sheer innovation and complexity, the cognitive and cultural richness of the native languages of the First Nations peoples (Baloy 2011 517) Historical policies and processes have contributed to the devaluation of fundamental languages in Canada- continue to resonate today.Residential schools, the sixties Scoop, galvanizce gnificanation of aboriginal- (Baloy 2011 517) As a result, many aboriginal parents refrained from speaking their heritage languages to their children in efforts to hiking their chances for success in mainstream society- a extension of young Aboriginal children grew up monolingual in English- drop after residential schools. (Baloy 2011 518) Angered by the loss of language, community leaders seek redress as the loss of language has become a symbol of government oppression and acculturation policies. Baloy 2011 518) Reclamation of Native identity, pride, decolonization, assertion of sovereignty (Baloy 2 011 518) Henry Davis stated If you talk to anybody on the reserve, the chiefs will stand up and check out two things of utmost importance language and land Dual significance What bout about Urban Aboriginals? (Baloy 2011 518) Urban vs. inappropriate comparison, similarities, contrasts Urban Example Vancouver Diversity of British Columbia- Western Canada Vancouver is located in the traditional lands of the Musequea, Squamish, Tsleil-Watuth. The Katzie, Kwantlen, Stolo, Tswassan- recognized as topical anaesthetic First nations.Umbrella Coast Salish- Squaimish and Musqueam have urban reserves- Musqueams language Henqeminem- no fluent speakers though there are some semifluent speakers- efforts to reform and revitalize language- Squamish Skwxwu7mesh Snichim- some fluent speakers, working(a) toward language revival (Baloy 2011 519) From beginning Vancouvers development aboriginal nonlocal aboriginal people have made the city for episodic or long-term settlement. Great diversity of a boriginal people living on traditional Coast Salish homelands. Vancouver jobs, education and services. Baloy 2011 520)There are over thirty five First nations groups represented in the city. First Nations groups are represented in the city in additional to Metis and Inuit peoples. There are now over forty thousand people who identify as aboriginal in the Metro Vancouver area. 1/5 of the total aboriginal population in the province. (Baloy 2011 520) The number of Aboriginal people has risen in Vancouver- 30% since 1996. Aboriginal peoples living in the city continue to grow- (Baloy 2011 520)In the early 1950s 7% of aboriginal people in Canada lived in urban settings- Today virtually 54% of aboriginal people now living in cities. 0% in B. C Moving back and forrader between city and reserve. Though many identify with a particular Native heritage and homeland, their aboriginal life is hardened in city life (Baloy 2011 520) patronage urbanization- language revitalization work has maint ained mostly an on-reserve focus- reflects wider trends in social science research on aboriginal people as well as mainstream understandings of aboriginal identity (520) Cities or places that had the potential for economic development Why the city has been neglected for so long? Rural aboriginal homelands- rural bound up in colonial histories- Themes of genocide, dispossession of land, and aboriginal government relations emphasize these geo-demographic patterns Reserves are native space- Colonial practice dictated reserves in their favor. By interrogating these processes scholars can avoid reifying colonial practices that have contributed to trop of rural aboriginal homelands. Peoples from communities across B. C and Canada have ow moved to Vancouver to live dwell on Coast Salish homelands an urban environment (524) negotiating cultural protocol in such divers(prenominal) context can become moderately impler when local people are emphaisized. Outsiders still honor the Coast Sali sh homelands and attempts to rvitalize language. Some people believe that the world would be a better place if we all spoke the same language. If this is true, and the worlds fix language somehow ended up being Arabic for instance, I wonder what life would be like not being able to converse with mortal else in my mother tongue.My world would be inevitably enveloped in silence, I would not be able to coherently declare stories of my heritage nor utter words that could cohesively encompass the full expression of who I am. It is undeniable that this would possibly be one of the loneliest states of existence imaginable. Unfortunately, such an unthinkable condition is in fact a stark reality for some peoples in the world. This phenomenon has mainly tightened its mountain range on to weakened Indigenous communities whose dying tongues have been systematically forced to the edge of extinction on a global scale.As languages continue to disappear from the face of humanitys cultural dive rsity, the need to language this issue becomes increasingly more pertinent. strange learning French or Spanish, within Indigenous communities, learning a language is ultimately a spiritual process. It gives peace, a sense of reality, a sense of peace. In an urban setting, learning an aboriginal language can enrich ones links with other people from the same nation or strengthen connections to ones aboriginal heritage on deeper personal level. Meeting these language goals requires approaches different from long-term language learning.The most intense projects for language workers and learners aim to develop conversational, general use of language. (530) New words in the urban setting- like the internet, or the lift that are not readily at hand for aboriginal peoples. This fast pace, changing the modern world is almost unaccepted for English to keep up with. (530) some of their words are obsolete. Conversely, words that aboriginal langues do have in abundance, such as vocabulary related to local food procurement and specfic land features have limited relevance in the urban setting. Language is obsolete in that sense. 530) Its now up to the community to change language to fit the city-dwellers needs. Thus qualification IDEOLOGICAL places for language in the city involves identifying how aboriginal languages can fit into urban peoples lives, integrating how aboriginal languages (531) What is offered in the inclusion of Native Languages in the lives of urban aboriginal people. Research participants intimate that urban language learning can have wide-ranging effects it can strengthen individuals bonds with their own identity and their test to homelands, community building efforts.We cant feel our mother, we cant feel our language. Being cut from the land they are literally cut from all meaning language. (537) Musqueam, Squamish and other local nations- resilience, connections between land, language and identity remain strong and resilient. The close connecti on between language and the land. own developed by geography. Getting out in the wilderness is where language makes sense- where language is manifested. Noting that sounds emulate the land. The diversity of languages in BC- physical geography of B. C (324)