The language I choose to write about comes from right here in the United States! Currently it is endangered with about 3,500 speakers and can be classified as Uto-Aztecan It is used amongst an Indian tribe in Utah. Since it is a Native American language, there are major efforts in order to keep it alive and keep it moving from each and every generation. There is currently a Ute Language Policy that highlights laws and regulations that protect the Ute language. In this order there are roman numerals with specific headings that tell you what topic goes with the protection of the language. In the beginning is speaks about the language being integral to their culture; how “the Ute language is a living and vital language that has the ability to
Leslie Marmon Silko's essay, "Language and Literature from a Pueblo Indian Perspective," and Amy Tan's essay, "Mother Tongue," share similarities and differences. Both authors discuss the challenge of language, each from their own perspective.
The Chickasaw's language is an interesting language. It is part of the Muskogean Language family which originates from the Southeastern region of the United States. It is closely related to Choctaw. Chickasaw is considered an endangered language. It was degraded by the lack of use because of circumstances that worked against the Chickasaws' ability to speak their language during their time in Indian Territory. There has been an attempt to revive the language, and the revitalization project hopes to help people learn about their heritage through the language. The Chickasaw language has a different structure to the English language. The Chickasaw language is important because it allows the Chickasaw people to connect to their history
The Pachuco is supposed to contrast the other languages in the Chicanos while it is secret and unheard cultural language, which makes other people who are not native in the country, doesn’t know about their new form of transition culture. In addition, since the Pachuco is a secret and unfamiliar language to the dominant discourse, the Chicanos people then able to translate their new form of cultural language to each other without feeling embarrassed and create a homogeneous society.
A serious issue will occur when 311 languages are spoken throughout the United States , and not one of them is recognized as the official language. I have personally experienced the difficulties of trying to communicate with individuals in my own community, because of the language barrier. This controversy has existed
While examining the packet of resources, two pieces caught my attention, “Vanishing Voices” by Russ Rymer and the Self Portrait Between the Borderline of Mexico and the United States by Frida Khalo. In “Vanishing Voices”, Russ Rhymer explains, “Parents in tribal villages often encourage their children to move away from their insular language … towards languages that will permit greater education” (Rymer 7). This demonstrates how isolated ethnic groups abandon their culture in order to pick up the global language for economic prosperity. It indicates that remote societies are conforming to globalization for a greater economical gain. Likewise, the bottom of the self portrait of Frida Kahlo clearly displays how plants are converted to provide energy for modern technology. The plants represent the developing countries, while the technology serves as the most-developed countries which are eliminating remote cultures, and are using those countries’ resources for their own commercial advancement. These sources interested me as I had been accustomed to an Indian culture for 7 years, before assimilating into the American culture. I understood that I must learn the English language while preserving a part of my Indian heritage. I spent my 10 years in the U.S. learning English while slowly losing graph of my Indian language. It related to my life story as both sources centered around the theme of discarding one’s native culture to help learn the new language. Lori Hale,
Gloria Anzaldua wrote two essays Entering into the Serpent and How to Tame a Wild Tongue. It is difficult for me to understand because both of these two essays are in English and Spanish. I think it is the author’s purpose that let people know how difficult it is to suffer from different cultures and languages. Anzaldua mainly talks about the differences in cultures and languages to show how she fights against people’s common sense of American culture.
Learning a new language seems to have only positive effects. However, for a Mexican American, accomplishing this goal brought him drawbacks in the interaction with his family. In his essay, ‘’Public and Private language,’’ Richard Rodriguez describes the difficulty in learning a new language and the sacrifice he makes to accomplish his goal. Richard Rodriguez shares the difficulty for older people, as they learn a new language; however, for younger generations is easier to learn a new language. Also, the new language creates a lack of communication for Richard Rodriguez.
The film “The Linguists” follows linguists Gregory Anderson and David Harrison on their journey to learn about and document endangered languages in Bolivia, India, Arizona, and Siberia. Through their quest, they are able to interact with some of the few remaining speakers of languages that are near death and they manage to make an impact on how these communities view their heritage language. Focusing on the moribund languages of Siberia and Arizona, it becomes evident that speakers of the heritage language feel a love for the language and the culture it represents, but went through periods of oppression and embarrassment for being speakers of a minority language that ultimately shaped their attitudes on the language.
Language is a very important part of culture. It’s the method of communication between people, it’s a comforting feeling to hear your own language, and it defines who you are as a person. In the Hispanic culture the language spoken is Spanish. Spanish is such a popular language in the united states that many people become bilingual to be able to speak English and Spanish. "Spanish is the most spoken non-English language in U.S. homes, even among non-Hispanics. A record 37.6 million persons ages 5 year and older speak Spanish at home, according to an analysis of the 2011 American Community Survey by the Pew Research Center” When visiting a different culture, the language barriers are scary, I recently visited Mexico and not knowing what people were saying was frightening, Luckily Spanish is common so it wasn’t hard to find someone to translate. I remember feeling so warm inside hearing someone who speaks English talking, it was comforting to
Language is an essential part of our daily lives. Language is used to communicate with other people to meet our needs and satisfy our understandings. Everyone uses one language or another. Some have an advantage and are able to use
When someone hears the phrase ancient Empires a few civilizations come to mind such as the Mesopotamian Empire, the Roman Empire and the Aztec Empire but has anyone took into consideration what happened to their language years after they fell? One would assume that these civilizations languages have become dead languages, languages no longer in use. However, this paper will explore whether or not the Náhuatl language, the language of the Aztec people, is considered dead language. Into my research there are a small collective of people who still speak the language. There is a possibility of spreading the language through the education system to try to keep this language from disappearing completely, however do we have the right? Take a moment to imagine aliens have invaded the planet earth and the human race has lost the war. Now that the aliens have taken control of the planet we, the human race, must begin the process of assimilating into their culture. In this process we must give up our languages, cultures and beliefs to please our alien overlords. Anything that is alien has become a symbol of wealth and power. Anything human is considered inferior. As a result the majority of our records have been destroyed, Earth, many of the world’s languages are now considered extinct. Intergalactic researchers have to dig through old archives, interview the remaining human species in an effort to decode the dead languages. However, the remaining few humans believe that their language
Ken Wiwa presents several ideas pertaining to language and culture within his essay, Get Beyond Babel. Wiwa explains that every language has a chance of dying out over time. For any language to survive through years of societal changes, it must be adapted so it can be used to embrace other cultures, new technology and new perspectives. Wiwa presents the concept that language is the same as culture. I do not agree with this concept because I believe that culture is carried by the people, not by the language.
In the United States, an emphasize in learning the dominant language, English for example, can inevitably put other languages within the country in extinction. In reality, there are many other spoken languages in the United Sates, like those spoken by Native Americans, that are becoming endangered because of the immensity of more used languages. One may ask, what is an endangered language? According to Michael Cahill (Bonvillain), who has studied and researched many different endangered languages around the world, a language is endangered when "it is in fairly eminent danger of dying out." Cahill states two ways to quickly identify when a language is on its way to becoming endangered. One is when the
Another cause of the endangerment of the Ainu language would be the exclusion and discrimination the Ainu people faced. The discrimination the Ainu people faced made the Ainu people stop speaking the Ainu language to accommodate and assimilate to the Japanese culture. Because of the huge decline in the Ainu population, the Ainu became a minority in many communities across Japan (Tanabe 6). The Japanese viewed the Ainu people as exotic barbarians, and the 19th century Westerners viewed the Ainu as a lost, exotic race of Caucasians (Rice 12). The government created regulations that separated the Ainu people from the Japanese in 1901 (Tanabe 6). The Ainu people were segregated from the Japanese. For example, the Ainu children were not accepted
Language plays an important role in communication by bringing people together and enriching their relationships. Language can also alienate those who do not speak it properly, or at all, from those who do. The essays, Mother Tongue, by Amy Tan, best known for her book, The Joy Luck Club, and Se Habla Espanol, by Tanya Barrientos, delve into the many powers that language holds. These essays reflect how by not speaking a language in proper form and by not speaking a language at all, affects the lives of the subjects of the stories.