Last month Europe celebrated the Day of Languages, an event that was introduced by the Council of Europe to promote the benefits of multilingualism. The media showed very little interest on the future of languages. A few eurocrats see risks of some European languages gradually disappearing as the three working languages of the EU – English, French and German – will eventually push aside the other 21 official languages of the EU.
Some astonishing statistics of how languages are evolving need to be grasped to understand the threats that less popular languages are facing. There is little doubt that multilingualism is losing its importance on a global level. It is estimated that one language disappears every 14 days. John McWorther, a linguistics lecturer at Colombia University in the US, predicts that in a hundred years’ time only about 600 languages will be left on the planet as opposed to today’s 6,000.
While some eurocrats and politicians insist that the solution to this cultural threat is to spend more money to ensure that multilingualism and equal treatment of all the EU’s official languages remain intact, other expert linguists have different prescriptions to minimise the loss of languages spoken by minorities. The EU defenders of multilingualism insist that equal treatment of all the EU’s official languages is necessary for the free and smooth movement of people particularly young persons.
Jill Evans of the UK Greens Party and rapporteur on language equality in the digital age makes a more relevant observation. She quotes research from META-NET, a network of language technology research centres, that predict that as many as 21 European languages are at risk of digital extinction. This is already happening to many EU official languages, while some official majority languages are also at risk of becoming endangered minority languages in the digital world.
What our colonisers failed to do when they declared war on our native language, modern digital technology may well succeed in destroying
Evans argues that the digital world is no longer distinct from the real world. The internet permeates in every aspect of our lives, influencing how we speak and think. Increasingly more people rely on virtual assistants such as Apple’s Siri and Google’s Assistant. These electronic tools are only available in a handful of languages. If those who speak lesser-used languages are unable to access these digital tools in their own languages, they will naturally opt for one of the major languages that currently dominate the internet.
McWorther makes even more interesting observations. He argues that in a hundred years’ time the global language landscape will look very different from what it is today. The first big difference is thatthere will be vastly fewer languages. Secondly, languages will often be less complicated than they are today – especially in how they are spoken as opposed to how they are written.
English is likely to remain the predominant language of business, law, aviation and a myriad of other human activities. Although Chinese will be the native language of many more people, it is tough to learn. So China may well rule the world thanks to its economic prowess, but it will do so in English.
The Maltese language will face the same risks as other minority languages. Colonisation has led to the disappearance of languages. Many associate larger languages with opportunity and smaller ones with backwardness, and therefore stop speaking smaller ones to their children. Can we honestly deny that we have been experiencing this phenomenon for many decades as many locally born children do not have an even basic command of spoken Maltese?
It is a sobering reality that once a single generation no longer passes a native language on to children at an age where they can absorb language learning quickly, it is all but lost. Learning a language in adulthood is not easy, and it is even harder if a language is perceived to be difficult.
Modern population movements are creating a third wave of language streaming. As children of migrants move to urban areas worldwide, they soon learn their new country’s language even if with significant variations from the way that native speakers use the language.
I have serious doubt whether small countries like Malta can make an effort and have the budget to invest heavily in language technologies to ensure that Maltese continues to be relevant beyond the confines of the home. What our colonisers failed to do when they declared war on our native language, modern digital technology may well succeed in destroying such an essential part of our culture as an independent nation.
johncassarwhite@yahoo.com