Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages

by Mark Abley

Book Overview

In Spoken Here, Mark Abley takes us on a world tour from the Arctic Circle to Oklahoma to Australia in a fervent quest to document some of the world's most endangered languages. His mission is urgent:... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 061823649X
• ISBN13: 9780618236497
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 322 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.2" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

"What is the language using us for?"

That's the question asked by Scottish poet W. S. Graham, quoted by Mark Abley. It's another way of stating what's sometimes called the "Safir-Whorf hypothesis" - - the idea that your worldview is partly determined by the specifics of the language you speak. And anyone who has seriously tried to translate from one language (i.e., culture) into another knows there's some truth to this. Safir and Whorf have been replaced by Noam Chomsky's generative grammar and Steven Pinker's "language instinct" and the assertion that no language is inherently more capable of expressing an idea than any other language, which of course is true. But some languages NEED to say certain things, so when they do, their grammar or vocabulary or syntax will let them do a better job of it. A Welsh poet to Mark Abley: "In English, when you say the word 'mountain,' so many things come to mind . . . But when you say 'mynydd,' a very clear picture comes to mind: what I can see on the other side of the valley." Mark Abley traveled to places all over the developing and developed world where languages are in danger of dying out, and where they're being reinvigorated. But his story comes alive especially when he talks about different aboriginal languages and cultures that are in danger of being overwhelmed by "big" languages and culture, especially English. Abley makes it clear that it's not just linguistic diversity that's at stake. You could make a case that it's better for everyone to speak just a few (or even one) language, though I think you could refute it. (Oddly enough, I've only ever seen this monolinguistic argument asserted by people who happen to speak the language in question.) But it's not just minority languages that are threatened. The existence of different cultures and the natural world itself are at stake. Linguistic diversity is tied up with cultural diversity and biological diversity. Globalization can threaten all three. And human beings need all three kinds to survive. Linguist Danielle Cyr talks about "imposing our notion of truth" by letting these languages die. Other people's truths might provide a way of looking at a problem that would save us all. Just as someday we might need more than the one species of corn an American corporation grows, or some of the species of fish that have already disappeared from the ocean. Half the six thousand languages that are spoken now will be gone by the end of this century. "We" (the global culture that knows Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Bono, and, this week at least, Michael Richards) may not need any one of these languages in particular. But we need to know about as many as possible. The more ways we know that people HAVE thought, the more ways we know it's possible TO think. Some scientists think that language developed in humans along with intelligence, and that they reinforced each other. That we're homo loquens.

Vanishing languages and why they are threatened

Mark Abley's Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages may sound like a travel title and at times may read like an armchair adventure; but its more important application to literary and language studies should not be missed. Abley travels around the world to document its endangered languages: of the six thousand spoken In the world today, only six hundred are likely to survive into the next century. Chapters provide social and cultural insights in the process of considering these vanishing languages and why they are threatened.

a valuable handbook

In Wulai, the aboriginal village I live in, the cutoff is in the twenties. Those over thirty speak Tayal (also Atayal; an Austronesian language of Taiwan) as their first language. Those under twenty understand it pretty well, but rarely speak more than a few phrases. I make a point of speaking to children in my rudimentary Tayal, so they can practice ¡V and show off - without the embarrassment of being caught making a mistake. I nag parents to encourage their children to speak Tayal: if you don't, a tradition of over six thousand years will die with you. Several tribal elders have asked me to teach them how to write Tayal in roman letters. Children are elated to see their grandparents struggling with pen and paper, and this encourages them to repeat what their elders are saying. The administration started Tayal classes in Wulai Elementary, but I hear funding is being cut now that the Party feels one hour of Tayal a week is not going to bring them votes. Tayal is losing ground to Mandarin. What is to be done? What is to be done? Spoken Here is practically a handbook for me, of things I can try, things I can avoid, in my personal crusade to impress Tayal on the next generation. The author is alert to cant, dogma, and dead-end thinking, so the reader can see the fallacies of certain viewpoints. The writing is fluid and informative. His sympathy to the speakers of these languages makes their plights come alive. I wish books like this came with a CD. Looking at the word Tayal, did you have any clue that it is pronounced dah-YEN? If I write a Tayal word such as qsnuw or mksingut, does that give you any idea of how to pronounce it? I would love to hear what Yuchi, Wangkajunga, or Mohawk actually sound like (although a friend who has been there told me Welsh sounds like angry geese). I have listened to a couple Australian Aboriginal languages by tracking down their websites, which raises my main ¡V albeit minor - complaint about this book. In the Sources, he tells us things like "see the Web site of the Maori Language Commission" or "All these organizations have web sites." It would have burdened him very little, and given the book completeness, if he had taken the trouble to provide the http addresses for those sites!

Not depressing at all!

This book contains an amazing amount of surprising facts, everything from old proverbs in the Manx language to lizards in the Australian outback. I was a little afraid that it would be depressing to read, but the book is so well-written and even funny at times that I wasn't depressed at all. The author points out that in spite of the pressure of English, languages don't have to die if their speakers are really determined they should carry on. It's very accessible to non-linguists because the author doesn't talk down to readers or use academic jargon. Highly recommended.