Title: When languages die : the extinction of the world's languages and the erosion of human knowledge /
Authors: Harrison, K. David
Publisher: Oxford University Press,
Year: 2007
Subjects: Language obsolescence.; Knowledge, Sociology of.
Abstract: In When Languages Die, K. David Harrison illustrates the individual face of language loss, as well as its global scale. Languages are the accretion of thousands of years of a peopleʼs science and art - from observations of ecological patterns to creation myths. The author shows that the disappearance of a language is a loss not only for the community of speakers itself but also for our common human knowledge of mathematics, biology, geography, philosophy, agriculture, and linguistics. In this century, we face a massive erosion of the human knowledge base. The global abandonment of indigenous languages will bring a massive loss of accumulated knowledge and culture - this book argues for the irreplaceable nature of these unique knowledge systems and the urgency of documenting them before they are lost forever. Book jacket.
Contents: 1 A World of Many (Fewer) Voices -- 2 An Extinction of (Ideas about) Species -- Case Study: Vanishing Herds and Reindeer Words -- 3 Many Moons Ago: Traditional Calendars and Time-Reckoning -- Case Study: Nomads of Western Mongolia -- 4 An Atlas in the Mind -- Case Study: Wheel of Fortune and a Blessing -- 5 Silent Storytellers, Lost Legends -- Case Study: New Rice versus Old Knowledge -- 6 Endangered Number Systems: Counting to Twenty on Your Toes -- Case Study: The Leaf-Cup People, India's Modern Primitives -- 7 Worlds within Words.