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The IDIL 22-32 declaration concerns all the languages listed in Figure 2. However, languages with EGIDS 8a, 8b, and 9 should receive greater attention. Languages with EGIDS 9, 312 in all, should be prioritized because they are on the brink of extinction.
Hospice Versus Palliative Care Mindsets
What documentation model is best to preserve phonetic diversity before critically endangered languages die? To answer this question, we can analogize to health care pro- fessionals who manage terminally ill patients. Two types of mindsets guide the care they provide: the hospice care mindset (HCM) and the palliative care mindset (PCM). There is a subtle but important distinction between the two, even though, in both cases, the patient is critically ill and the specter of death is omnipresent. In HCM, the opera- tive assumption is that patients have six months or less to live. Therefore, every effort is made to keep them medically comfortable before death. In PCM, the view is that although death may be around the corner and patients may be in a critical state for some time to come, there is still a glimmer of hope that they may pull through. Consequently, care providers do not give up easily on these patients. I contend that if language planners want to preserve phonetic diversity during IDIL 22-32, they should operate under the assump- tions of PCM. Crystal’s (2000) six “postulates” in Table 3 are likened to care plans that can be used to save critically endangered languages from extinction.
Four of the six postulates lie outside the expertise or control of linguists. The two that a linguist can operate within are Postulates 5 and 6. In fact, it can be argued that
Table 3. Postulates and their description
Postulates
Description of Endangered Language
Postulate 1
Each will progress if speakers increase their prestige within the dominant community.
Postulate 2
Each will progress if speakers increase their wealth relative to the dominant community.
Postulate 3
Each will progress if speakers increase their legitimate power in the eyes of the domi- nant community.
Postulate 4
Each will progress if speakers have a strong presence in the education system.
Postulate 5
Each will progress if speakers can write their language down.
Postulate 6
Each will progress if speakers can make use of electronic technology.
linguists have used various approaches of Postulate 5 to document languages. Unfortunately, the strategies that are currently being used are good only at preserving vestiges of dying languages and they are incapable of preventing moribund languages from dying. If the same methods continue to be used during IDIL 22-32, languages with EGIDS 8a/8b and EGIDS 9 will have no fighting chance of survival. However, if current models are used in conjunc- tion with speech synthesis, moribund languages will not only survive but some may even thrive again. However, before rolling out this new documentation approach, we need to take a detour to familiarize ourselves with past and current methods of language documentation because they will contribute to the technologization of endangered languages as stated in Postulate 6.
Graphicization
The first line of defense against language death is graphi- cization. It consists of providing an unwritten language with a spelling system that represents its sound system adequately (Coulmas, 1989). Graphicization means a dif- ference between language death and language extinction. If a language dies while it has not been reduced to writ- ing, this dead language goes completely extinct, leaving absolutely no trace in the annals of languages. However, if a language dies after having been graphicized, it will never go extinct because it can be reconstructed on the basis on written records. Unfortunately, 1,409 languages of Africa’s 2,902 languages are yet to be reduced to writing (Koffi, 2012).
Figure 2. Worldwide distribution of endangered languages in different regions having Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS) 6b to 9.
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