Jumble Grumble A Note from Thought

How many languages do you speak? One? Two? Are you one of the multilingual speakers who can talk more than two languages?

If you speak more than one language, then you must notice the expanse of the world that you can see through language. How une and un describe the object; how kaniktshaq, anijo, and ivuneq are used to picture a simple snow; or simply how the language itself brings you closer to people you could proudly call as friend.

Language is fascinating. For me language is the closest thing that we human have to magic. How's not? Language bears culture. Language could be a mirror of one's personality or emotion. Plus, do you see how great authors like J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and J.K. Rowling created a new magical universe through their words? Word, language, magic.

Thus, wouldn't it be a pity if one language is endangered?



Several experts have voiced their opinion regarding endangered language. Roy Baumister in his article Language are Vanishing: So What? argues that the disappearance of "obscure" language will do more good than harm. "The creation of linguistic diversity was a curse and punishment visited upon us, so that we could not understand each other as well" he said.

Another expert, Derek Bickerton, opposes Baumister's article by saying that language is "the bearer of a culture, an incredible freight of human knowledge and experience and understanding--of epics, myths, nursery rhymes, proverbs, parables, ritual formulae, jokes, love-songs, dirges."He then continued by saying that once the language is disappeared all those die along with it.

As a linguist-to-be and someone who comes from a multicultural country, I have to give strong disagreement to Bickerton. What is so wrong in speaking language other than English? I speak Indonesian as my native language. Aside from that, I can understand a little 3 other local languages as a passive speaker: Javanese, Makassarese, and Minangkabau.

According to Wikipedia, Makassarese is only spoken by 1.6 million people; that is like what? far less than a quarter of earth population? A single dust among the desert? Maybe, but it exists, and is still spoken by Makassar people. And I don't think any of my Makassarese friends feel that bothered for learning and speaking both Indonesian and Makassarese when they were young. Or if they did, what they feel now that they have grown up is pride. I take pride in understanding Makassarese, even just a piece of it. It is our language; it is our identity. Makassarese makes us unique, and Bahasa Indonesian makes us one as Indonesian people.

Living in Yogyakarta, where hundreds of new students coming from different parts of Indonesia every year, I come to understand the beauty of diversity. Whenever I hang-out together with my friends who come from different area, let's say Makassar, Java, and Minang, we never feel like we could not understand each other well. The differences we have in languages only make us prouder as Indonesian. The differences only make us realize how wide the world is and how diverse we are as a nation. Personally, it only motivates me to learn more about language.

I'd like to think that it is the diversity that makes us unite. We human are different from one to another anyway, why should language be the one that puts us apart? Isn't it the diversity that makes world much more beautiful? I think it would be awfully dull if the world only consist of one language.

This quote from Bickerton is very much sum up my opinion:

"If what you want is a globalized, homogenized, utterly stultified and terminally boring world, go for it, let the languages die--we'll all speak nothing but Mandarin and English and we'll never know the wonders that we've lost."

Please, don't let the wonders gone.