作业帮急需extinction of languages的英语文章,200-250字
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急需extinction of languages的英语文章,200-250字
急需extinction of languages的英语文章，200-250字
急需extinction of languages的英语文章，200-250字
How languages become extinct
It's hardly possible for us to conceive of a situation where our English language is spoken by nobody any more,in other words has 'died out'.And yet this is exactly the fate of many languages.
Many used in the past are no longer spoken by anyone today.Analogous to the pictures and stuffed skins of the extinct dodo,we know about their previous existence only because of some written records,a few inscriptions,and often nothing but a reference to them somewhere.Many more must have disappeared quietly without even evidence like the biologist's fossil.In fact it has been estimated that in the last 500 years,half the world's languages have died out.The most common reason why a language 'dies' (the biological analogy shouldn't be pushed too far) is that its speakers have gradually switched to a more dominant language.Let's look at examples where this dominant language is our own English.
As we learned in school,before the British Isles were settled from the continent by the Angles and Saxons,they were inhabited by Celtic peoples.These were the ancestors of the present Welsh,Scots,Irish,Cornish and others.Over the centuries,the people who spoke the ancestor of English came to dominate the islands,pushing the Celts toward the north and west.Owing partly to a certain geographical isolation and a strong group identity,over many centuries of close contact with English the Welsh have managed to maintain their language.At present its ultimate fate is uncertain,as the number of fluent speakers gradually declines.
But the variants of Gaelic spoken by the Scots and the Irish are truly 'endangered'.Scots Gaelic is spoken today only in the northwest of Scotland,mostly the islands,and even there,more and more of daily life is carried on in English.In the Republic of Ireland,Gaelic has become a symbol of national identity,and is strongly promoted by the government as the country's second language.Instruction in it is required in all schools.But it is spoken fluently only by dwindling numbers of people in the west,where it brings no practical advantages:everyday life is in English.Cornish and Manx are Celtic languages that have become essentially extinct.Today the population of Cornwall is monolingual in English.On the Isle of Man,some speakers have some fluency in Manx along with English.Over in Normandy in France,the Celtic Breton language is enjoying a certain revival,but it too remains 'endangered'.
And it isn't only the English spoken over on those islands that has muscled away other languages.In our own country,Native American languages like Mohawk,Seminole and Choctaw (as well as many others) are all hanging on by the slenderest of threads - or have already passed into history.
In all these cases,the language falls into increasing disuse,not because the peoples themselves,with their cultural traditions,have dwindled away,but because the language has been overwhelmed by a dominant one.For healthy survival,a language needs a nation (in the broad sense of a people conscious of a group identity) that sees it as `its own'.For a variety of reasons,the Welsh have been more successful in maintaining this `nationhood' than the Scots and Irish have.
The languages that find themselves in the strongest position have all the resources of a national state behind them (that facetious remark "A language is a dialect with an army and navy" comes uncomfortably close to being true).The authority of a state can assure that a language is the vehicle of education,the legal system and the mass media,and as a consequence the prestigious one of literature,poetry and song.
What is happening in those languages which no longer carry the weight of the daily life of a society?The really crucial thing to watch for is a language's social status.Its speakers more and more turn away from using a language that is perceived as conferring no real benefits in everyday life.It may even amount to a handicap when others one needs to communicate with do not understand it.Typically speakers - in shrinking numbers - find themselves conversing about a steadily more limited range of things,and at the same time their command of the full resources of the language to express thoughts crumbles.They find it harder and harder to think of "how to say it" in the minority language.As an inevitable consequence of this,children perceive a quaintness and uselessness,and no longer learn the language fluently or at all.When only old timers even know the language,its death warrant has in effect been signed.
Most of the languages in the world today find themselves under extreme pressure from politically dominant 'prestige' languages such as English,French,Spanish,Chinese,Arabic.This isn't always a result of intolerance and repression (though these are common enough) but of speakers' judgments about practical usefulness.An analysis of the 'Global Language System' is presented in Miniature No.96.
A language is not an organism but a set of patterns in speakers' minds and behavior.So strictly speaking,when a language goes `extinct',it is not as if something were `dying' as a living species can,but more like a cultural custom passing out of use.But a language is far more fundamental to our whole thought than,say,a regional style of dressing.When a language goes out of use,something central in human thought has vanished.
It's hardly possible for us to conceive of a situation where our English language is spoken by nobody any more,in other words has 'died out'.And yet this is exactly the fate of many languages.
Many used in the past are no longer spoken by anyone today.Analogous to the pictures and stuffed skins of the extinct dodo,we know about their previous existence only because of some written records,a few inscriptions,and often nothing but a reference to them somewhere.Many more must have disappeared quietly without even evidence like the biologist's fossil.In fact it has been estimated that in the last 500 years,half the world's languages have died out.The most common reason why a language 'dies' (the biological analogy shouldn't be pushed too far) is that its speakers have gradually switched to a more dominant language.Let's look at examples where this dominant language is our own English.
As we learned in school,before the British Isles were settled from the continent by the Angles and Saxons,they were inhabited by Celtic peoples.These were the ancestors of the present Welsh,Scots,Irish,Cornish and others.Over the centuries,the people who spoke the ancestor of English came to dominate the islands,pushing the Celts toward the north and west.Owing partly to a certain geographical isolation and a strong group identity,over many centuries of close contact with English the Welsh have managed to maintain their language.At present its ultimate fate is uncertain,as the number of fluent speakers gradually declines.
But the variants of Gaelic spoken by the Scots and the Irish are truly 'endangered'.Scots Gaelic is spoken today only in the northwest of Scotland,mostly the islands,and even there,more and more of daily life is carried on in English.In the Republic of Ireland,Gaelic has become a symbol of national identity,and is strongly promoted by the government as the country's second language.Instruction in it is required in all schools.But it is spoken fluently only by dwindling numbers of people in the west,where it brings no practical advantages:everyday life is in English.Cornish and Manx are Celtic languages that have become essentially extinct.Today the population of Cornwall is monolingual in English.On the Isle of Man,some speakers have some fluency in Manx along with English.Over in Normandy in France,the Celtic Breton language is enjoying a certain revival,but it too remains 'endangered'.
And it isn't only the English spoken over on those islands that has muscled away other languages.In our own country,Native American languages like Mohawk,Seminole and Choctaw (as well as many others) are all hanging on by the slenderest of threads - or have already passed into history.
In all these cases,the language falls into increasing disuse,not because the peoples themselves,with their cultural traditions,have dwindled away,but because the language has been overwhelmed by a dominant one.For healthy survival,a language needs a nation (in the broad sense of a people conscious of a group identity) that sees it as `its own'.For a variety of reasons,the Welsh have been more successful in maintaining this `nationhood' than the Scots and Irish have.
The languages that find themselves in the strongest position have all the resources of a national state behind them (that facetious remark "A language is a dialect with an army and navy" comes uncomfortably close to being true).The authority of a state can assure that a language is the vehicle of education,the legal system and the mass media,and as a consequence the prestigious one of literature,poetry and song.
What is happening in those languages which no longer carry the weight of the daily life of a society?The really crucial thing to watch for is a language's social status.Its speakers more and more turn away from using a language that is perceived as conferring no real benefits in everyday life.It may even amount to a handicap when others one needs to communicate with do not understand it.Typically speakers - in shrinking numbers - find themselves conversing about a steadily more limited range of things,and at the same time their command of the full resources of the language to express thoughts crumbles.They find it harder and harder to think of "how to say it" in the minority language.As an inevitable consequence of this,children perceive a quaintness and uselessness,and no longer learn the language fluently or at all.When only old timers even know the language,its death warrant has in effect been signed.
Most of the languages in the world today find themselves under extreme pressure from politically dominant 'prestige' languages such as English,French,Spanish,Chinese,Arabic.This isn't always a result of intolerance and repression (though these are common enough) but of speakers' judgments about practical usefulness.An analysis of the 'Global Language System' is presented in Miniature No.96.
A language is not an organism but a set of patterns in speakers' minds and behavior.So strictly speaking,when a language goes `extinct',it is not as if something were `dying' as a living species can,but more like a cultural custom passing out of use.But a language is far more fundamental to our whole thought than,say,a regional style of dressing.When a language goes out of use,something central in human thought has vanished.