Mind Your Languages

 

PART 7 – Gapped Text

You are going to read a magazine article. Six paragraphs have been removed from the article. Choose from the paragraphs A–G the one which fits each gap (41–46). There is one extra paragraph which you do not need to use.

Mind Your Languages

Thousands of the world's languages are dying, taking to the grave not just words but records of civilisations and cultures that we may never fully know or understand. Linguists have calculated that of the 6,000 languages currently spoken worldwide most will disappear over the next 100 years. As many as 1,000 languages have died in the past 400 years. Conversely, the handful of major international languages are forging ahead.

41 ______

The trend is especially visible in areas where many small communities have traditionally spoken their own languages. Younger generations often abandon these languages in favour of those that offer greater economic and educational opportunities. As a result, unique ways of describing the world are gradually disappearing.

The Dutch linguist Frederik Kortlandt has spent much of his career documenting endangered languages in remote regions of the world. His work involves collecting stories, recording conversations and compiling dictionaries before these languages vanish forever.

42 ______

Researchers often have only a short window of opportunity. Once a language is no longer passed on to children, it may survive for only a generation before becoming extinct. The process of documentation is therefore urgent and requires extensive fieldwork.

43 ______

Many linguists have vivid stories about their experiences in the field. Some describe journeys lasting several days by canoe, while others recount sleeping in isolated villages with no electricity or modern facilities. Despite the challenges, most agree that the rewards outweigh the hardships.

One of the strongest arguments for preserving endangered languages is that they contain knowledge unavailable elsewhere. Indigenous communities have accumulated information about plants, animals and local ecosystems over centuries.

44 ______

Such traditional knowledge may one day prove invaluable to scientists, doctors and environmental researchers. If the languages that contain this information disappear, much of that knowledge may be lost forever.

Yet not everyone agrees that preserving endangered languages should be a priority. Some argue that language change is a natural process and that communities themselves should decide which languages they wish to speak.

45 ______

Kortlandt and his colleagues acknowledge this criticism but maintain that documenting languages remains essential. Even if it is impossible to save every language, recording them provides future generations with access to an important part of humanity's heritage.

46 ______

Several international organisations have recently launched projects aimed at creating archives of endangered languages. Modern digital technology is making it easier than ever to preserve recordings, dictionaries and written texts for future study.

Paragraphs A–G

A

This is one of the things worrying linguists working in Fiji in the South Pacific. There are hundreds of known remedies in Fiji's forests. The guava leaf relieves diarrhoea, the udi tree eases sore throats, and hibiscus leaf tea is used by expectant mothers. There are possibly several more yet to be discovered.

B

'I accept this,' says Kortlandt, 'but at the very least, we can record as much as we can of these endangered languages before they die out altogether. Such an undertaking naturally requires support from international organisations.' But what progress is being made in this respect?

C

Kortlandt elaborates further: 'If you want to understand the human species, you have to take the full range of human thought into consideration. The disappearance of a language means the disappearance of a culture. It is not only words that disappear, but also knowledge about many things.'

D

To non-linguists, while particular stories like this can be fascinating, it must seem odd to get worked up about the broader issue. Why waste so much time saving languages spoken by so few? Why look back instead of forward?

E

For example, Chinese is now spoken by 1,000 million people and English by 350 million. Spanish is spoken by 250 million people and growing fast.

F

'There are about 200 languages spoken in this area, but only a few have been properly described,' says Kortlandt. 'The problem is it can take years to document a language. We are generally happy when we have a group of texts we can read and understand with the help of a reliable grammar and dictionary.'

G

This often means trekking to some of the most inaccessible parts of the Earth and can require consummate diplomacy in dealing with remote tribes, some of which may be meeting outsiders for the first time and may be wary of strangers asking for so much information about their language.