Vanishing Voices Analysis

Inspired by the writings in the article titled “Vanishing Voices” by Russ Rymer, particularly the writings titled “Tuvan, I became aware that many endangered languages and cultures have neared extinction when faced with infrastructure growth and global progress. Much of the economic, technological, and political growth is greatly attributed to a globalized society. The article describes the Republic of Tuvan, in which a family is portrayed as living “ between the border of progress and tradition” (Rymer 2). The language in the Republic of Tuvan, which is constantly being dominated by more resilient languages, such as Russian, English, and Mandarin Chinese, is only spoken by a few in the area. With an increase in urbanization associated with …show more content…
These areas consisted of many indigenous peoples that were initially looked down upon as being inferior. Within imperialism, English and French became dominant languages, as people from Britain and France exerted control of areas in the world. The negligence of the indigenous people, also led to the negligence of their languages. According to Salikoko S. Mufwene, a professor from the University of Chicago who has written the peer-reviewed article “Globalization and the Myth of Killer Languages”, European languages “have been depicted as ‘killer languages’,” replacing many minor languages (Mufwene 3). Those who did not know or speak English as a main language gave up their original languages and slowly assimilated to the dominant European regime in order to feel more included and less …show more content…
Through technological globalization, advanced computer systems are proven to help record and preserve many minor languages in developing and even developed nations. From 2005, Anvita Abbi , a renown and credible professor of linguistics at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi as mentioned in the report by H. Guyford Stever, utilized bettering technology that stemmed from globalization to document not only her language but also the cultural, historical and ecological knowledge that it relayed (Stever 1). It is mentioned in this report that “a comprehensive archive of digitized audio, visual and textual documents is now available for future generations” (Stever 1). This can be utilized in preserving endangered and minor languages. Such example provides a counter argument to the initial claim that states that globalization has adverse effects on the survival of endangered and minor languages. Modern 
globalization 
can
 also 
bring 
about 
trends
 which
 are 
positive 
for
 minority 
languages. 
It 
can 
reveal 
the 
fact 
there 
are
 endangered 
languages
 all
 round
 the 
world,
 and
 so
 give
 their 
speakers
 a
 motive
 to 
contact
 one 
another. In an article by Dawn Foster, a credible journalist for the Guardian 's new website, it is shown that languages, such as Welsh, have reversed a downward trend with the utilization of such communication technology
 (Foster