Literature 3:
DIRECTIONS Read the following passage and answer the questions at the end and complete the graphic organizer. You are to complete the activities on your notebook.
How Languages Are Lost
Just as civilizations rise and fall, so do the languages that people speak. Ancient Greek and Latin are considered dead languages because no one speaks them outside of the classroom. Many living languages, however, are just barely alive. Around the world, many speakers of rare and ancient languages now choose to communicate in more widely spoken languages. As a result, many linguists fear that the modern world, with its emphasis on global communication and international markets, will bring about a speedy end to the diversity of world languages. When languages die, we lose valuable information about our world and its history.
In a region of South America known as the Peruvian Amazon, many languages have already become extinct. About a hundred and fifty languages were once spoken there. These languages flourished in isolation. However, because of the introduction of modern communication and transportation, only fifty-seven of these languages still existed at the end of the twentieth century. According to linguist Mary Ruth Wise, almost half of those remaining languages are in grave danger of being lost.
In danger of extinction are several Peruvian tribal languages spoken by members of isolated jungle communities. As outsiders came into the jungles of the Amazon, Peruvian tribes, languages, and cultures began to change. When Spanish speakers moved to the region, they established schools in which only Spanish was spoken and brought with them radios that blared news broadcasts in Spanish. The Spanish speakers grew politically and culturally powerful, and Spanish became the dominant language in the region. As a result, speakers of regional tribal languages began to feel that their cultures, customs, and languages were inferior. Over time, these native speakers took up European customs and began to learn and speak Spanish, neglecting their own language.
At the end of the twentieth century, twenty-five Peruvian tribal languages were close to extinction, and the only speakers of these languages were a handful of elderly people. They are likely to be the last native speakers of these languages. Their children and grandchildren prefer Spanish and have no interest in learning the language of their elders. Furthermore, scholars have not fully documented these endangered languages. As elderly speakers die, they take the last memories of their language and culture with them.
Linguists are distressed over the consequences of failing to preserve these languages. With the disappearance of a language, we lose the key that unlocks knowledge of how its speakers lived, worked, thought, and dreamed. It is almost as though those people, their language, and their culture had never existed. Furthermore, the decline in the number of languages spoken in the world points to an ever-narrowing world culture. What will happen as more and more people speak fewer and fewer languages? What will happen if everyone shares the same culture, wears the same clothing, and eats the same food? Our world could become much less interesting.
QUESTIONS:
- How might an emphasis on global communication and international markets bring about the end of certain languages?
- How did the introduction of the Spanish language affect tribal languages?
- Why will some tribal languages probably die?
- What happens when languages disappear?
- Which causal pattern is used in the final paragraph: focus on causes, focus on effects, or causal chain? Name the cause(s) and effect(s).
DIRECTIONS: Use the ideas and information in the fourth paragraph of the passage you have just read to complete the graphic organizer.
