Students at the University enjoy a privilege that many people around the world are denied — the right to speak and converse in the language of their birth.
GLOSS treasurer Lindsay Jones said language oppression and endangerment have reached critical levels in many populations around the world.
“Every two weeks there is a language dying in the world, and lots of things, like cultural identity and traditions, die with it,” Jones said.
This term, GLOSS, the student-run organization devoted to the study of linguistics, is addressing the issue of language oppression
in their colloquium series, “Language Endangerment and Language Revitalization.”
As a part of the series, every Friday GLOSS sponsors a colloquium and brings in a different speaker to address the topic. Today, Marianne Mithun, a professor from the linguistics department at the University of California, Santa Barbara, will be the guest speaker at the group discussion on language endangerment at 3:30 p.m. in 142 Straub. Mithun will also be leading a workshop on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in 216 Allen.
Mithun is a theoretical linguist. She examines the link between language and identity, and what happens culturally when a language dies.
Christiane De Oliveira, founding chairwoman of GLOSS and co-organizer of the fall colloquium series, said Mithun differs from many linguists in the way she carries out her fieldwork because she honors the needs of the community whose language is threatened while she conducts her research.
Mithun will be addressing the topic of balancing academic work versus serving community needs at her workshop on Saturday.
Linguistics Department Head Spike Gildea said many languages are dying out in different societies around the world because their traditional way of life is being eroded on all sides. He added the alarming trend of smaller communities being assimilated into dominant cultures is threatening the survival of traditional languages.
“The world is facing what appears to be an unprecedented extinction of languages,” Gildea said.
De Oliveira said this term’s theme was chosen because the group felt it was a good general interest topic that everyone would enjoy learning about.
“Language endangerment is a topic that has to do with minority populations and repressed communities around the world,” De Oliveira said.
Linguistic research, especially regarding the world trend towards language oppression, is of great importance, Jones said.
“Language is a manifestation of a population’s heritage,” she said, not just a collection of words and grammatical rules.
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