Essay Instructions: Writing Assignment 2, ENG 3310
We have used terms such as "death" and "extinction" in relation to languages just as a biologist would in talking about a species. This may sound strange or inappropriate. What justification is there for this? After all, languages are not living things which can be born and die, like butterflies or dinosaurs. They are not victims of old age and disease. They have no tangible existence like trees or people. In so far as language can be said to exist at all, its locus must be in the minds of the people who use it. In another sense, however, language might be regarded as an activity, a system of communication between human beings. A language is not a self-sustaining entity. It can only exist where there is a community to speak and transmit it. A community of people can exist only where there is a viable environment for them to live in, and a means of making a living. When communities cannot thrive, their languages are in danger. When languages lose their speakers, they die. (5)
Linguistic diversity, then, is a benchmark of cultural diversity. Language death is symptomatic of cultural death: a way of life disappears with the death of a language. The fortunes of a language are bound up with those of its speakers. Language shift and death occur as a response to pressures of various types--social, cultural, economic, and even military--on a community. Every time a language stops performing a particular function, it will lose some ground to another that takes its place. Death occurs when one language replaces another over its entire functional range, and parents no longer transmit the language to their children. (7)
As a uniquely human invention, language is what has made everything possible for us as a species: our cultures, our technology, our art, music, and much more. In our language lies a rich source of the accumulated wisdom of all humans. While one technology may be substituted for another, this is not true of languages. Each language has its own window on the world. Every language is a living museum, a monument to every culture it has been vehicle to. It is a loss to every one of us if a fraction of that diversity disappears when there is something that can have been done to prevent it. Moreover, every people has a right to their own language, to preserve it as a cultural resource and to transmit it to their children. (14)
The three quotations above are from another book on endangered languages-- Vanishing Voices: The Extinction of the World's Languages by Daniel Nettle and Suzanne Romaine (Oxford Press, 2000). Reading through Nettle and Romaine's book was actually the first time I had ever thought very much about vanishing languages around the world. These three quotations, I think, encapsulate some of the basic points that K. David Harrison is trying to transmit in When Languages Die.
The second writing assignment in ENG 3310 this semester is based on your reading of Harrison's book. Your full reading assignment is chapters 1-6, including the accompanying case studies. (You may read ch. 7 if you wish, but much of the information there is more technical in terms of linguistic terminology. I'll most likely comment on ch. 7 at some point on the discussion board.) Also, I have placed in Electronic Reserve The Linguists, a film which provides a visual journey through Harrison's travels as he and a fellow linguist document endangered languages. Watching the film does not serve as a substitute for reading the book, but some of you might find that it helps in terms of creating an even more complete picture of the language worlds Harrison talks about so passionately.
Essay 2 Requirements
Write an essay answering the questions below, which I have based on When Languages Die. The essay should be 2 to 4 pages long. A longer essay will not necessarily be more effective. Use 12pt type. I am looking for an essay written by you. I'm not interested in you quoting extensively from Harrison's book since both you and I have copies of it. If you do quote, use quotation marks and provide a page number for reference. I would rather that you put information into your own words for this assignment, but even then, let me know at least what chapter you are working from. I also expect that your essay will show evidence that you've read the book, not just dipped into it, so a surface-level approach will receive less credit than an in-depth one. Your essay needs to cover all four areas I have listed below.
What causes the death of a language? Where does the process begin, and how is it carried out? Provide examples from the book that illustrate how individual language speakers are coerced into giving up their language. (I realize that the word coerce may have a negative connotation, but part of the point is that the speakers may not be giving up their languages willingly.) This topic is one Harrison discusses throughout the book, not just in one place.
What is lost when a language dies? Support your answer with examples from the book. Harrison covers five different areas in chapters 2-6: knowledge about plant and animal species, time reckoning systems, people's mental maps of the land they live on, the importance of oral traditions, and counting strategies defined by a culture. (You do not necessarily have to deal with information from each of these chapters, but you should talk about at least two different kinds of information, and of course, provide examples to support your points.)
As Harrison notes, languages package information in different ways, and as the third quotation from Nettle and Romaine above mentions, "each language has its own window on the world." Choose two examples from Harrison's book that you think best illustrate those unique ways and discuss them.
As speakers of English, one of the world's dominant languages, we may find it difficult to care about the extinction of languages around the world. Why do you believe/not believe we should be concerned about endangered languages? (I don't care which side you take on this point.)
Grading Rubric:
Grading Rubric for When Languages Die Essay
A- An essay which receives an evaluation of A is well-written and does not contain major writing/spelling errors. This essay answers all of the questions I asked in the assignment, and it goes out of its way to provide support. When I read this essay, I know that the student is engaged in the assignment at a high level and has demonstrated that in writing. It is not necessarily a longer essay than others; it is quite simply more thorough and stands above them as an example of what the essay on the topic can be. This essay is at least 2-4 pages in length and does not quote excessively from When Languages Die but rather expresses the writer?s ideas in his/her own words. If the writer does use any direct phrases or sentences from When Languages Die, he/she uses quotation marks and provides pages numbers.
B- An essay which receives an evaluation of B is also well-written and contains few if any major writing/spelling errors. This essay provides detailed, thoughtful answers to all questions I posed in the assignment and includes adequate support for them. It demonstrates that the writer understands the concepts being discussed in the text and can write about them effectively. This essay is at least 2-4 pages in length and does not quote excessively from When Languages Die but rather expresses the writer?s ideas in his/her own words. If the writer does use any direct phrases or sentences from When Languages Die, he/she uses quotation marks and provides pages numbers.
C-An essay which receives an evaluation of C sometimes contains a few writing/spelling errors, yet those errors must not overshadow the message of the essay. This essay answers most questions I posed in the assignment but may not answer them as effectively or as thoroughly as an essay which is evaluated at a higher grade. This essay may not contain the level of support for ideas that it should, but it should be clear to me as a reader that the student has read and understood the concepts behind When Languages Die. This essay is at least 2-4 pages in length. Its writer may occasionally rely too closely on wording from the text. If the writer does use any direct phrases or sentences from When Languages Die, he/she uses quotation marks and provides pages numbers.
D-An essay which receives an evaluation of D may contain numerous writing/spelling errors. If this essay contains a high level of errors, they may detract from the message of the essay. However, an essay which receives an evaluation of D might also receive it because the writer has not done an effective job of answering the questions I posed in the assignment. The essay may deal with the issues in a surface manner or deal with major areas effectively but not provide adequate support. The essay might not cover all questions that I posed in the assignment and/or it may not demonstrate completely that the student has read and understood the concepts behind When Languages Die. This essay may be shorter than the required length of 2-4 pages. The writer of this essay may fail to use quotation marks around some words, phrase, or sentences taken from When Languages Die.
F-An essay which receives an evaluation of F does not satisfy assignment?s requirements. It may contain a level of writing errors that should not be present in college-level writing. It also may not effectively demonstrate that the writer has understood the assignment, come to terms with the subject matter, and/or read When Languages Die. This essay may be shorter than the required length of 2-4 pages. The writer of this essay may fail to use quotation marks around some words, phrases, or sentences taken from When Languages Die.
