Could there be a loneliness more profound than being the last speaker of a language?
Is the extinction of a language any sadder than the extinction of a species? There are nearly 2,500 languages that could be in danger of disappearing completely.
85 year old Boa Sr (pictured) who died earlier this month in the Andaman Islands, was the last speaker of the Bo language. It was one of the ten languages of the The Great Andamanese who now number just over 50 people.
They are the descendents of a people who have lived in these islands for 75,000 years.
Anvita Abbi is Professor of Linguistics at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi and she has spent years studying the disappearing languages of the Andaman Islands. She also knew Boa Sr personally, and has extensive recordings and videos of the old lady singing the songs that will never again be sung by a native speaker.
Professor Abbi (left) talks passionately about why a tiny ancient language is worth preserving - because, she says, the language of a people represents an entirely unique perception of the world.
She gives me an example that brings it home: “Most languages have a word for someone who has lost their husband: widow. They have a word for someone who’s lost their parents: orphan. Do you know of a word for someone who has lost a sibling?”
I double check with the sound engineer who’s recording the interview - nope. There is no such word in Dutch, and I can’t think of one in English.
Professor Abbi tells me that in the fifty languages she’s studied, there is no such word either, but there is in Greater Andamanese because they believe that losing a sibling is as great a loss as losing parents, so they have a word for such a person - raw-puch.
“It’s painful to observe that a vast knowlege base is vanishing from this planet”, she says. I can’t help but agree.
By the time my girlettes are old ladies, 90% of the world’s languages may have vanished.
As melancholic a thought as the idea that our grandchildren may not ever see a tiger out of a zoo or taste a fish caught fresh from the sea.
Well, Boa Sr may have passed away, but thanks to the Internet her voice lives on. A wonderful website called Vanishing Voices of the Great Andamanese has a selection of songs, many performed by Boa Sr herself. The site also has a lot of information about the people and their language.
on Feb 11th, 2010 at 9:55 am
Logic of evolutoion applies to language as much as it does to the species.We feel sad when we lose the last member of any species, so we mourn the last member of a language group which will no longer be remembered or heard. But with the death of a language the last remaining vesitiges of that culture dies too. Hopefully with the modern technology of recording, we will be able to preserve some languages in their fossilised form. But if language disappears it is mainly due to the fact members of that linguistic group did not choose to keep it alive. I am personallyconcerned about my language which even my own children and the children of my friends of the same language group do not use that language at all!
On optimistic note, like new animal species that are being discovered abd identified, I hope there are new languages too that are emerging.
on Feb 12th, 2010 at 7:10 am
It’s always sad to see something which was among us go forever. The death of someone, the extinction of a species, the end of a race or the end of a language; all of them present to us moments of sadness. But we who are still alive go past all these and live our life as if it’s never going to end. Life present us with this reality all through our existence in each and every experience. So let us think in a intensely positive strain…just imagine…if all languages die one by one and we all speak one language…will it give us an opportunity to understand each other better. We could choose words from dying languages which we feel we are lacking in that one language we may one day use. It is believed that through understanding each other better we could stop ourselves from violence to enjoy more peace and joy. Sure language is prime in understanding each other better. It feels nice seeking ways to understanding, peace and joy !
on Oct 11th, 2011 at 10:46 am
The work that linguists like Prof. Anvita Abbi and her colleagues - from different parts of the world, e.g. the Endangered Languages Academic Program at SOAS, London - are doing is invaluable!
With lots of admiration,
Tania Kuteva