It is plain to see that the Covid-19 Pandemic has had a great deal of affects on humans across the globe, from altering social interactions to the devastating losses of life. While much focus has been placed on understanding the virus and preventing its spread there has also been calls for attention on the latent affects of this virus, particularly on endangered languages. Today’s blog post will explore the impacts of the Covid-19 Pandemic on endangered languages and what this means for the great whole of humanity across the globe.
Endangered languages exist across the globe. These include languages that have few native speakers, are no longer taught (or infrequently taught), and/or is hardly spoken regularly. Endangered languages are classified by risk of loss, from endangered to critically endangered, and they are considered extinct when no native speaker or speakers remain alive. Several efforts have been undertaken to preserve endangered languages, and until recently these efforts were inconsistently effective. With the Covid-19 Pandemic, though, several of these efforts have been halted as a result of mandatory quarantines, social distancing measures, and fears of spreading the virus. Furthermore, individuals who were willing to teach and those willing to learn endangered languages have had their attentions directed elsewhere, or they have been physically isolated from each other, further hampering language preservation efforts.
The loss of endangered languages carries serious consequences outside of just losing the language itself. Languages are key elements of culture, and endangered language speakers often hold cultural and historical knowledge that will also be retained with the preservation of the language. Information critical to appropriately conserving and using natural resources, fighting past pandemics, and other important cultural knowledge is being lost as a result of the Covid-19 virus claiming the lives of endangered language speakers. The historical and cultural knowledge loss is accompanied with great loss of human life, a fact that should not be hastily overlooked.
Additionally, the Covid-19 Pandemic has highlighted disparities in access to health care among indigenous populations, particularly those who retain the crucial cultural, historical, and linguistic knowledge. Speakers of endangered languages often do not speak the dominant language, and they then cannot access accurate information about the virus and preventative measures to help them avoid catching it. Those who do speak another language are often shut out of conversations and information dissemination campaigns about Covid-19 and preventative measures as medical workers and others governmental agents do not think or consider sharing this information with these vulnerable populations.
The health care issues are the not the only ones faced by endangered language speakers and their kin. Many members of these groups already live in poverty and are faced with greater economic challenges as they cannot continue their livelihoods due to the quarantine and/or social distancing efforts meant to stave off the spread of the virus. There are also issues of outsiders taking resources away through the willful theft of lands and resources from these groups, many of whom are willingly self-isolating in order to protect themselves and their cultures.
Ultimately, the Covid-19 Pandemic has emphasized various areas of economic, health, and social disparities among societies and cultural groups globally, particularly focusing on issues faced by endangered language speakers. Several efforts have been initiated to not only bring attention to these matters but also work to resolve them. I am hopeful that such efforts will accomplish substantive changes that lead to more equitable societies, but one first must be aware of these issues before such goals can begin to be worked toward.
References
Abbi, Anvita. "The Pandemic Also Threatens Endangered Languages." Scientific American 20 April 2020. Electronic.
Drude, Sebastian. "The direct and indirect impact of Covid-19 on people speaking endangered languages in Brazil." 24 April 2020. FEL Blog. Electronic. 16 June 2020.
Fernandes, Aaron. "Coronavirus could have a devastating impact on endangered languages." SBS News 5 March 2020. Electronic.
UNESCO. COVID-19 Pandemic: Language matters. 2020. Electronic. 16 June 2020.
5 comments:
This is an interesting topic. One that I have not considered. Global epidemics are devastating to society in all aspects. From the loss of life the loss of cultural and historical traditions. When one is not able to get into a society and learn the practices, traditions, and languages; one cannot pass this knowledge along. Without the passing along of the information, the information ceases to exist. This is a devastating loss for society.
Additionally, access to healthcare is a major area of concern that results in the loss of life. The loss of life results in the loss of historical information being passed along. This is a compounding effect that is resulting in a major loss.
Lindsay; SA-201-99
Reading this blog I learned many things. Before reading this i didn't exactly know what endangered languages were until i started to read the blog. from reading this blog endangered languages is something that is likely to become extinct in the near future. When you can't learn for something you that means you can't pass in on to the next. and this loss is bi for the society.
Joi-Olivia Russell SA201-99
I’d Have to agree with the previous comments. I never took into consideration the work that would be put to halt because of covid-19. After battling it, I believe it’s sad that some languages will have been wiped because of the carelessness of health officials when not taking this virus serious when first announced.
-Jesse Logan
The recognition of endangered languages is important in that they may be lost completely, throughout being isolated in the Covid-19 pandemic the word of mouth has lost its touch in learning to preserve the language, I hope these cultures attempt at writing and translating to the other people the keys to their native language, for research and translation purposes.
Qwynn Marquez
The post highlights how vulnerable endangered languages are, especially in light of the Covid-19 outbreak. It illustrates the fragile state in which these linguistic groups find themselves by emphasizing the difficulties caused by social distancing measures, quarantines, and restricted access to education. It accurately points out the complex effects of language loss, which go beyond historical and cultural factors to include differences in healthcare and the economy. Losing linguistic variety can make inequality worse and make it more difficult to solve the socioeconomic problems minority populations confront.
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