Department of Linguistics fights to keep languages alive
The ongoing endeavors of the CU Department of Linguistics are still big news even though their projects are not new.
In fact, David Rood has been studying the Wichita language since 1966. The department’s unique efforts to study remote languages abroad in order to document them have boasted numerous achievements, and they hope to continue the success.
“It’s not typical, only some departments do this,” said Zygmunt Frajzyngier, the department chair of the CU Linguistics department.
Professors in the department study predominately North American indigenous languages and other languages from remote parts of Africa.
Frajzyngier is currently working on Wandala, a language spoken in Cameroon and Nigeria. His study includes spending a few months a year in this region.
His previous efforts have included the study of languages that have not yet been described, including an endangered language spoken in southern Ghana.
The ultimate goal of the studies is to publish the grammar of the language, establish dictionaries, and document any oral literary traditions that the dying languages have upheld. Frajzyngier is proud to list off the wide array of languages whose grammar has been published in recent years.
“It’s been, generally, a very good experience,” said Andy Cowell, a research professor in the department. Cowell studies Arapahoe, a language that was once spoken in the Boulder area. His enjoyment in studying these indigenous people stems from the Arapahoe tribe’s eagerness to uphold their native language in the areas he has studied.
“Most of the people there are very conscious of the fact that the language is disappearing, and especially the older ones have a very strong feeling that it is something that is worth preserving, and ideally they’d like to see it maintained or revitalized,” he said on Saturday.
It is a reason for concern when the language being studied is consciously abandoned by its speakers in favor of other more predominant languages, such as English in North American tribes and French in many African tribes studied.
Frajzyngier said researchers cannot force the language to be maintained, but try at the very least to document the language before it dies out indefinitely.
If the people do want to revitalize their native language, researchers develop teaching aides based on the information gathered from their studies.
“It’s a very challenging thing to do,” Cowell said.
But success in helping to maintain these languages seems to be a rewarding bonus.
Frajzyngier stressed the insight that these studies provide in understanding language in general in an effort to better understand ourselves.
“We need to find out what’s really going on,” Frajzyngier said. “Only then can we make conclusions about what humans have in common and how they’re different.”
Frajzyngier said that when a language is lost, a unique thought process can be lost. He also said that language is the most intricate product of the human mind, and to lose it in any form is to lose what was an intricate exhibition of intellect.
“If a language isn’t used, this most complex intellectual product of the community also disappears,” said Frajzyngier. “They don’t know what kind of things they have invented.”
Contact Campus Press staff writer Spencer Everett at spencer.everett@colorado.edu
