An indigenous language in southern Mexico is in danger of disappearing because its last two speakers have stopped talking to one another.
The two elderly men in the village of Ayapan, Tabasco, have drifted apart, said Fernando Nava, head of the Mexican Institute for Indigenous Languages.
Are they really the last two speakers left? The odd part of the story is this:
Dr Nava played down reports of an argument between the two Ayapan residents, both in their 70s. "We know they are not to say enemies, but we know they are apart. We know they are two people with little in common," he told the BBC News website.
They nonetheless have been nominated to play the role of linguistic saviors:
The indigenous languages institute is trying to encourage more local people to speak Ayapan Zoque, and hopes the two men will pass the language on to their families.
Interesting. I was wondering today what is the use of so many languages in the world. More importantly, why some of them are in rapid decline. Aside cultural dogmas, I can’t see why some regret ‘ancient indigenous languages’ are disappearing. Do languages spoken only by a handful contribute to human knowledge, or they set apart people who know them?
The story of the two “last speakers” of some language being not-on-speaking-terms appears so frequently I wonder if it is something like an urban legend.
Different languages also contain a rich and diverse literature and cultural heritage that often dies with the language. For all we know the Etruscans had epic oral poetry that surpasses Homer in skill, but is lost forever because the Etruscan language died before the literature was written down. Similarly, how much history is lost to us forever when the language it was composed in (whether written or oral) is lost?
Shouldn’t this be linguistic autarky?
Linguistic autarchy rather reminds me of Humpty Dumpty’s approach to lexicography.
Admittedly, one easily leads to the other, so the distinction is not clear-cut.
The indigenous languages institute is trying to encourage more local people to speak Ayapan Zoque
If the institute is actually that upset about it, they would learn it themselves or pay handsomely for anyone willing to do it. Easy enough to put out a press release asking someone else to learn a defunct language, not so easy to actually bear the large cost of doing it.
I myself will not miss the Ayapan Zoque language, nor most of the 99% of all invented languages no longer with us.
介ç»ä¸€å®¶ç¿»è¯‘å…¬å¸|深圳翻译|深圳翻译公å¸|æä¾›åŒå£°ä¼ 译 |很好ï¼
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