Well of course clobbering animal and plant species goes on apace, news tells us today that scientists have gravely underestimated how many because in the tropics where its happening the most species-loss hasn't been surveyed....
Dont step on that bug, it's Hungarian! (or Yiddish, or Catalan or Welsh or French or Wolof or Tagalog etc.)
In the same way the destruction of linguistic species has been going on apace, ALL languages and literatures (except English, more correctly American/Global English or Globbish) are under threat; its concentrated economic power and status is reducing all other languages to an accessory position.
I don't think there's any way to stop this global cultural wave -- and the de facto creation of a universal common language is a good thing mostly -- but the point is to take measures to protect the other cultures of the planet so that they remain present and keep linguistic diversity alive.
The measures really come down to this; individuals and communities need to learn to value, respect, love and honour whatever local languages and linguistic cultures they have a connection with.
My personal example is this one; Yiddish. Although my family used this as their daily talk for 1000 years my mother's generation believed that only assimilation into English counted and 98% of them didn't try to pass the language on...
Through a personal effort I've been able to bring some of this language's rich presence into my life and in that way the 'dying language' is helped to live. I feel these decisions should be aestheic and voluntary, too often decisions about languague use are made on bog-lovel pragmatic grounds; language 'A' will help you earn a living quicker, language 'B' is considered 'foreign' here and might one day arouse suspicion if you know how to use it...
Under this pragmatism lurks a totalising authoritarian state-principle practised by most countries historically, one national language in one form is imposed on all citizens; all other languages and dialects are slowly or quickly throttled. Also this 'practical' attitude is the same economism that says a motorway (in Globbish 'freeway') is 'more valuable' than a green forested area full of birds, trees, creatures and beauty...
What do you think site-visitor? Am I exaggerating? If not, what are you doing to help defend the human cultural 'genome'?
