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How to save the dying languages?

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Subash Chapagain

Subash Chapagain Jul 05, 2022

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Thousands of languages are going extinct within decades. How do we save them?

Language is one of the tools that makes humans superior to other primates. Spoken and written languages have enabled us to communicate on a large scale and maintain collaborative efforts to build new technologies and solve real-world problems. While the importance of language as a tool is self-evident, language is also tightly related to the cultural and social identity of a group of humans and often determines the well-being and prosperity of the community that uses the language.

As such, it is alarming to see that there are hundreds if not thousands of languages that have gone extinct. With globalisation and widescale linguistic colonialism of English, the rate of language extinction has accelerated in recent decades, as suggested by this extended list prepared by the guardian.
When a language goes extinct, it doesn’t mean merely the words are lost. It means a loss of a long history of usage and different connotations associated with the language. Some languages are unique in the sense that they have expressions for phenomena and emotions that cannot be expressed in any other language. For instance, take the Russian word Tos-ka (тоска). Though the word roughly translates to the feeling of deep anguish and misery, it is considered one of those words that are almost untranslatable to other languages, and you have to be a Russian-speaking individual to fully grasp its meaning.
There could be a thousand other phrases and words that are simply untranslatable, and if the languages they belong to are lost, the words are lost. It means those emotions associated with the words and phrases are lost. This means we lose that humane value we hold dear. By some estimates, 80% of the world’s languages are predicted to be extinct in the next century     .
Why do languages go extinct?

For a variety of reasons, like:
Outright genocide. For example, European invaders wiped out the Tasmanian population and left no one around to speak the language.
Pressure for a small community to integrate into a larger influential community forced lingua franca at the systemic level.
Generational gradual decline in use associated with emigration and globalisation
As such, what could be the best way to save these dying languages? How can we preserve the essence of these ethnic languages?

[1]https://www.linguisticsociety.org/content/what-endangered-language

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Creative contributions

Introduce all modern concepts in the dying language

Shubhankar Kulkarni

Shubhankar Kulkarni Jul 06, 2022

One of the reasons a language dies is because it is unable to incorporate all the modern terms that the people (who speak the dying language) use. As an example, mathematics is impossible without Greek and Latin letters. Although very few people use Latin to communicate in their day-to-day lives, it still lives because of its contribution to mathematics. The same goes for Latin terms like "in vitro", "in vivo", "et al.", etc. So, one way to save your language is to introduce all the modern concepts. Convert every Greek and Latin symbol into the dying language so that people can use it and need not rely on Greek and Latin.

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Language olympics - Inter-language competitions

Shubhankar Kulkarni

Shubhankar Kulkarni Jul 06, 2022

Not just spelling bees, but competitions that involve multiple languages. For example, a memory game that involves remembering words from different languages. These games should test the capacity of a person to learn multiple languages.
A debate in which one team replies in language A and the other team replies in language B. Both teams need to know both A and B to understand and answer appropriately. To make it more interesting, the teams do not disclose which language there are going to speak in a priori. A team could include people speaking different languages.
Any other games you can think of?

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Invaders should be responsible to document the customs and traditions of the place they invade

Shubhankar Kulkarni

Shubhankar Kulkarni Jul 06, 2022

As mentioned in the session text, the Tasmanian population was wiped out by the invaders. This has happened in other places, too. It should be the responsibility of the invaders to document the languages, customs, and other characteristics of the land they invade. Loss of language is intangible and not necessarily identified in the future.
Avoiding the loss of customs will also avoid genocides since the local people will be needed to understand and share their knowledge for documentation. Improper or no documentation should be liable to heavy sanctions and boycotts.
A worldly authority should be installed that will see to it that this is followed.

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Create the basic need to communicate in the dying language

Shubhankar Kulkarni

Shubhankar Kulkarni Jul 06, 2022

Extinction is natural and in line with the survival of the fittest. People adapt to another language (other than the ones that their parents taught them or the mother tongue) out of need. Moving to another language is part of evolution. People may move to a completely unknown language in another 500 years. This need is the ultimate thing that makes you move away from your original language. If you want to save a language, improve its need. Without need, it is just a mean of communication.

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Highlight texts from the dying language that make sense to others, too

Shubhankar Kulkarni

Shubhankar Kulkarni Jul 06, 2022

Several ancient philosophical texts make sense even today. However, only those who understand those ancient languages can read and translate them for others. Some meaning is lost in translation. To avoid that, keeping the language alive is important. Even though people introduce newer words into the language, they should not lose the lesser-used words. Highlighting such ancient texts can help save a language. Several tribes use local medicines that are highly effective. They have knowledge regarding the different medicinal plants in their vicinity and how to make medical preparations using them. Preserving this could save several lives.

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Tourism

Shubhankar Kulkarni

Shubhankar Kulkarni Jul 06, 2022

Many times, tourism helps save languages. People like to travel and have a holistic experience of the place they travel to. This includes their food, customs, and language. Frequent travelers learn at least a few common sentences. Tourism may include museums of languages, too, along with those of artifacts.

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Utilizing the power of movies and TV shows

Miloš Stanković

Miloš Stanković Jul 06, 2022

There are some people who speak Klingon and Tolkien's Elvish even though these are constructed languages. The power of the fiction around propels them. 
Using these endangered languages in a hit movie or TV show might spark people's desire to use them. Especially by re-sparking the national fervour. And these endangered languages lend themselves perfectly to some fantasy or historic tales. 

I could definitely see a country like Wales subsidizing the production of a TV show that would use Welsh in hopes of battling the language dying off. 

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Subash Chapagain

Subash Chapagain2 years ago

True. One of the main reason that English has been so successful in dominating the linguistic landscape is that it was amplified by media and the TV and the movies.   

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A worldwide AI SOS campaign to save the endangered languages

Subash Chapagain

Subash Chapagain Jul 06, 2022

To save the languages at risk, an AI-based worldwide campaign could be used.
How does it work?

Select several languages that are at the risk of extinction. Collect as many usage examples for each language. Based on the present-day usage, feed training sets to the AI. Use all available texts, scriptures and spoken records of the language. The rules for syntax, grammar and semantics can be set as needed based on the present-day usage of the particular language.

Engineer the system such that the system simulates a continuous use of the language into the future as well. Even if the number of people that use the language in the real-world decreases, the system keeps on using the language perpetually. This way, the system can also account for the evolution of language with time.
This can be accomplished with the help of linguists, programmers and AI scientists. For example, such ‘language saving’ programs can be incorporated as academic projects for graduate students and released as open-source programs.
Over time, governments and corporations can be called in to fund these projects. Even if the real world usage of these languages comes to an end, these campaigns can be perpetually preserved as virtual linguistic museums where the languages keep on evolving temporally.

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jnikola

jnikola2 years ago

We could add "character" to these AIs (similar to what GPT3 algorithm can). That way, we could build agents representing different people speaking the same language. Soon, we could have a population of AI agents that speak the dying language and can be used by everybody to learn the language, practice the existing knowledge or just to have fun. I imagine playing a game where these agents translate what the others are writing/saying and reproduce it in your language - an LoL gameplay experience in your native dying language. 

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Longevity

Shubhankar Kulkarni

Shubhankar Kulkarni Jul 07, 2022

Increasing longevity will inevitably maintain the population that uses their language for communication.

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Implement more languages in Google, Apple and other services

jnikola

jnikola Jul 07, 2022

To use new technologies, people speaking dying languages need to switch to English or a similar language available for the service. If there were more languages available (including the dying one), people could continue using them on their devices daily and keep the language alive. Also, implementing these languages in Google would be a definite language-saver.
How would it work?
It would work similarly to what Subash Chapagain mentioned. We could use the AIs that learned the language to implement this language into Google faster. 

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More questions

Florin Buda

Florin Buda Jul 18, 2022

It looks like this question have another questions hidden in the initial question:
First of all when will you consider that a given threatened language is safe from extinction? 
 When we'll have a database with subtitled videos in that language? This is solvable with just raw money, time and a YouTube clone or even YouTube (-ish) social involvement.

Or a threatened language is safe from extinction when a sufficient amount of youngsters speak it? This needs another question answered before: who will designate a language as "worth preserving” and on what criteria? Because once we'll understand why the young generation is stoping speaking it there are several different ways of responding but none of them is cheap. 
You can literally enlarge the community by giving them economical escapes: no taxes for companies started there (eg: grocery shops, restaurants?) that only speaks that language with customers or employee. Also economical stimulants if you're bringing your kids to a native kindergarten/school. Debate club?
Cultural events, LOTS of them. This will make the community thight and proud of itself an more willingly to stay united. This goes from theatre and book ( local newspapers with a page dedicated to poetry or literature?) to big holiday feasts where all the elderly will be included - cooking contest + recipe explanation? 

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Shubhankar Kulkarni

Shubhankar Kulkarni2 years ago

All languages are worth preserving, I think. You are right, a language is probably safe from extinction if a sufficient number of youngsters speak it. The solutions you mentioned are great.

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Florin Buda

Florin Buda2 years ago

Shubhankar Kulkarni unfortunately i can't fully agree with the fact that we should artificially sustain. Running big multigenerational programs would require a lot of money and while I agree that they are cultural treasures we must not forget that we are still living in a world were too many children go to sleep without eating and even them can be prtected 100%>

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Shubhankar Kulkarni

Shubhankar Kulkarni2 years ago

Florin Buda Although what you say is true, the cost required to preserve a language could be brought down drastically. Instead of AI, we could train teachers who can help translate all the important stuff into the dying language. The preservation activity will also create jobs, which will further feed the hungry children and make their lives sustainable.

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Add your creative contribution

General comments

Shireesh Apte

Shireesh Apte2 years ago

Again, from a purely Darwinist and hubristic point of view, I can't seem to think of a single scientific discovery or invention whose causation was possible entirely because of deciphering/understanding or otherwise coming in contact with a dying, almost extinct language. Given limited resources, I would rather save seeds than languages. As regards intangibility, more philosophy, art, theater, music etc. has been written in English (or translated into it) than in any dying language. 

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Subash Chapagain

Subash Chapagain2 years ago

Shireesh Apte I think it would be a false dichotomy to say 'we have so many other XYZ problems, hence we should not try and save the languages'. There are millions of other problems, still, people are heavily investing in space travelling. The idea of saving languages doesn't have to be mutually exclusive with other solutions. They can occur simultaneously.

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Shubhankar Kulkarni

Shubhankar Kulkarni2 years ago

Shireesh Apte The issue becomes grave when a few languages are actively preserved causing more rapid and imminent extinction of other languages. Here are a couple of links that have established the reasons beautifully.
https://stanfordrewired.com/post/japan-restored-ainu-ai-pirika
https://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/06/on-saving-chinas-dying-languages/276971/

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Shireesh Apte

Shireesh Apte2 years ago

I am not entirely convinced that we need to save dying languages. Arguing from a social Darwinist and hubristic point of view, they die out because they lack mass adoption and have been disregarded and superceded in favor of other languages that provide the means for socio-economic and scientific success. Having said that, I do acknowledge that thinking mechanisms and systems of thought are influenced by language so that if I could somehow learn Mixtec or Hopi, I may make more discoveries/inventions or glean non-evident knowledge than I would if I could only speak, write and read English. However, I would rather save seeds from every species in Svalbard than try to save -on the verge of becoming extinct - languages.

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Subash Chapagain

Subash Chapagain2 years ago

Shireesh Apte It is true that not all languages warrant saving. However, homogenization of cultures far in the future can lead up to such an extent that only a few languages might dominate the world. As such, don't you think the whole of humanity is at loss? Like I mentioned, language is not just words and meanings but heritage and legacy as well. The more linguistic tools we have to think and communicate with each other, the more it would be better. This was the rationale behind proposing to save the endangered languages. 

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