Читать книгу The Languages of Smaller Populations: Risks and Possibilities. Lectures from the Tallinn Conference, 16–17 March 2012 - Urmas Bereczki - Страница 5

We do not know how many languages were spoken on our planet over the last two thousand years. We do know, however, that by the end of the 21^st Century over 90% of the languages spoken today are endangered. It is seen as a scientific probability that of the 6,000 languages currently spoken, between 50–90% will have died out by the end of the XXI Century. Will our mother tongue be among them? This is the question that immediately comes to mind. This fear may be related to our natural instinct of self-preservation, as we tend to identify the fate of our language with the fate of our nation and the nation’s destiny with our individual fate.

The fear of the extinction of our language and our very nation may be a fear as old as human culture itself. This fear, while perhaps inherent, became part of common discourse as influenced by the thoughts and activities of Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744–1803). Herder’s concepts, the “death of nation” among them, had a direct effect on the development of several branches of science and more indirectly on the shaping of certain nations’ fates through their respective writers’ ideas and works. Cognizant of this or not, this fear of the extinction of our language still plays in our minds both consciously and subconsciously. If this instinctive fear is unavoidable, we must realize and articulate it. Thus, we would have a better chance of allaying our fears, fears which would otherwise paralyze our ability to move beyond them.

Urmas Bereczki