Laila Thurston, The University of California – Santa Barbara
Abstract
Language and culture are interdependent systems; the degradation of one precipitates the decline of the other. In recent years, there has been a staggering increase in the decline of thousands of languages, which is disproportionately impacting indigenous and minority communities. With this accelerating decline, irreplaceable knowledge, tradition, and practices are dwindling, where the conditions for generational transmission, preservation, and circulation are impeded upon. There are two dual forces driving this decline: environmental degradation from climate change and sociopolitical oppression. These external factors encroach onto ecological and medicinal intelligence, cultural knowledge, and linguistic diversity, which are often overlooked facets. This article examines this intersection in global climate change and its implications on migration and land-based practices, with oppressive hegemonic sociopolitical structures driving this change. This explores the societal inability to value non-economic losses over economic outputs, demonstrating a needed shift in the prioritization of the erosion of knowledge and culture. By examining the major contributions and losses of language and culture, it illuminates the dire need for revitalization through immersion and documentation to resist the cultural and linguistic erasure on a global scale.
Keywords: Language Loss, Environmental Degradation, Hegemony, Displacement, Endangered Languages, Cultural Erosion, Political Oppression, Revitalization, Structural Inequality, Intergenerational Transmission, Non-Economic Loss, Revitalization
I. Introduction
Across the globe, minority and indigenous languages are experiencing a rapid decline, with the principal issues contributing to this erosion being a culmination of political oppression and environmental issues stemming from climate change. This decline of thousands of languages marks a consequent decline in cultural, traditional, and epistemologic knowledge, often which is irreplaceable and deeply meaningful to many societies. Within a global system of historical racial and cultural hierarchies, this persists into modern day, with many colonizing countries enforcing legal institutional constraints that prohibit the use of indigenous or native languages, mandating that “standardized” and “legitimate” languages be used. This perpetuates a hegemonic societal structure, where indigenous and minority communities are “othered” in this way. One of the most impacted categorical regions are Small Island Developing States (SIDS) where the impacts of climate change such as rising sea levels, natural disasters, and environmental and infrastructural degradation necessitate the displacement of these populations. In these instances, language and culture are not often institutionally accepted or supported, accelerating the loss of intergenerational transmission through assimilation of a dominant culture. The interconnection of sociopolitical marginalization and environmental degradation illustrate the role of external factors contributing to a loss of unique perspectives and cultural knowledge, which are vital aspects in an equitable, diverse, and interconnected society. This issue ties into broader problems of inequality and consequences of climate change, and a need to protect the people and languages that are especially vulnerable. In these dominant economic and hierarchical paradigms, value is equated to tangible assets: products, services, and goods. Yet, we must also shift our attention to non-tangible societal and cultural aspects, those that exist within the realm of belief systems, tradition, and heritage, as they are critical to social cohesion. It is crucial to understand and address how climate change and political oppression directly contribute to linguistic and cultural loss for indigenous and minority communities, impeding on the ability for irreplaceable knowledge and tradition to be preserved.
II. Climate Change Disturbances
The effects of climate change are major drivers of cultural and linguistic loss, particularly for indigenous and minority communities. The IPCC’s sixth report states that between 2006 and 2018, global mean sea level increased by about 3.7 mm, coupled with average global surface temperature being 0.99°C higher than 1850-1900 levels. These factors contribute to more extreme weather events and environmental degradation, such as droughts, floods, tsunamis, hurricanes, and other extremities that impact infrastructure and the livelihoods of many people. Climate change can cause disturbances and changes in agricultural patterns and practices when vegetation and animals change their patterns, and are impacted by extreme weather events and changes. This can have major implications, especially for indigenous communities where many people’s sense of self is linked to their practices and ways of life. There is a significant link between these impacts and preexisting vulnerabilities and inequalities, where climate change only exacerbates and increases the negative implications. In light of this, individuals from many communities, particularly minority and indigenous ones, are forced to relocate, in turn often leaving behind their culture and language, assimilating into the dominant facets of the mainlands they relocate to for survival. In light of this, only about half of the world’s current 7,000 languages are expected to survive this century. This is especially true for linguistic communities that live along coastlines and on small island states, where they are more vulnerable to extreme weather events that have detrimental impact to their livelihoods, infrastructure, and practices. This raises a critical concern: the most vulnerable communities are often the most concentrated with rich linguistic and cultural features that are not found elsewhere, and bear the greatest burden in terms of environmental impact. Specifically, the four atoll SIDS: Kiribati, Maldives, Tuvalu, and the Marshall islands, encompass one or more indigenous languages in a small area of land, making them linguistically rich in a concentrated region. This highlights the dire consequences that climate change can have on indigenous languages and communities, making it harder for these languages to retain speakers and circulation in practice.
Given these cascading environmental pressures, there needs to be a larger emphasis on preserving the intangible dimensions of society, such as generational agricultural and pastoral practices that are embedded in culture and language. Currently half of the world’s languages have less than 10,000 speakers each, meaning that only 0.1% of the population is keeping half of the world’s languages alive. There needs to be a larger emphasis on conserving and aiding aspects of life that do not yield direct economic returns, but have a profound cultural, spiritual and traditional value for many communities. This is illustrated through the concept of non-economic losses due to climate change, how other factors can be lost such as “life, human health, human mobility, territory, biodiversity, ecosystem services, indigenous and local knowledge (ILK), cultural heritage, sense of place and social cohesion.” In the case of indigenous and local knowledge (ILK), this is linked directly to cultural knowledge when generational traditions are passed down over centuries, especially through oral ways of communication rather than written. This is a foundational aspect of identity and belonging, especially when many people’s sense of self is linked to their land-based ways of life. An example of this can be seen occurring for indigenous communities in Alaska, where climate change is disturbing hunting and fishing patterns that are important for survival, economic prosperity, and the preservation of indigenous traditional patterns. In these regions, sea and river ice is thinning, vegetation is changing, and the migration patterns of animals are changing. Similarly, droughts in countries like Burkina Faso cause major changes in agricultural practices for people who live pastoral lives, in which their identities are intertwined with their way of life. In both of these instances, cultural and traditional knowledge is being hindered by climate change impacts, and for communities that heavily rely on and value the land and natural processes around them, this poses major challenges. Climate change must be understood as having major consequences in sectors that are often overlooked, as they accelerate cultural and language loss and exacerbate instances of historical and structural inequalities.
III. Sociopolitical Factors, Historic Oppression, and Colonial Structures
Deep rooted racism, oppressive regimes, and discriminatory ideals have been used by colonial powers for centuries as a way to enforce and control populations, particularly indigenous groups. When observing regions that have borne the consequences of historical colonization and oppressive political systems, there is an observable decline in the languages once spoken by these groups. In the United States and Canada, 80% of Indigenous languages are no longer being learned by children. The historic oppression, violence, and brutality faced by indigenous populations in the Americas has lasting impacts, and when children are no longer learning languages that have been the subject of erasure for decades, these languages begin to dwindle in speakers. In the US, English-only legislation has been implemented in 24 states and territories. These policies reinforce the notion that standardized languages such as English are more useful and correct, which can cause minority languages to switch to these languages. A distinct example of this is in Australia, where there is an incredibly drastic drop in the amount of languages spoken, with 90% of their Aboriginal languages being nearly extinct. For the languages that remain, many of them only encompass a small number of speakers, with around 18 of them only having about 500 speakers. This stark drop in the amount of languages left, along with the small number of speakers for many of these languages, display how systems of coloniality and oppression have caused major implications for language and culture.
In many instances, this historic oppression is furthered by systems and political standpoints that favor the use of dominant languages over indigenous or “non-standardized” languages. This is especially concerning when considering that indigenous people speak 60% of the world’s languages, yet make up only 4% of the total population. In many instances, nationalistic and “unifying” ideologies are at the core of policy and opinion that has persisted into modern day, continuing to halt the circulation and practice of minority and indigenous languages. An example of this is observable in some of Canada’s founding texts and commissions, in which the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism published their report The Official Languages in 1967, in which it excluded “Indians and Eskimos” as they were not deemed to be part of the “two founding races.” In this way, hierarchical ideologies rooted in racist and colonialist perspectives damaged the ability for indigenous people in Canada to be included in protections and legislation, ultimately contributing to more standardized languages predominating. Similarly, indigenous students in Mexico who do not have proficiency in Spanish have rarely been accommodated, with teaching materials, instruction, and curriculum being taught in Spanish meant for native speakers. In turn, there were major differences in the performance of indigenous students, performing much more poorly than their native Spanish speaking counterparts. In extreme forms of oppression and violence, language has been used as a method of perpetuating violence and justification for killing. In 2013 during the South Sudan civil war, a military tactic was employed which weaponized language, where individuals were targeted and killed if they were speaking the “wrong” language. Hence, language can be utilized as a means of dehumanization and justification for violence, becoming a political weapon rather than a means of communicative transmission between groups. A similar situation was evident when students at the University of Dhaka in Pakistan were killed after protesting and advocating that their language of education be changed to Urdu in 1952. In both instances, oppression and violence is justified on the basis of language and culture, with exploitative measures contributing to the marginalization, and erasure, of certain groups.
IV. What is Being Lost From Language and Culture
The consequences of widespread language and culture loss extend beyond individual locales, impeding on the integrity of ecological knowledge systems, health practices, and linguistic diversity on a global scale. Many indigenous communities rely on traditional environmental cues to guide agricultural, harvesting, and medicinal practices, yet when these natural cycles are disrupted, it can impact linguistic systems and structures that are intertwined with them. An example of this is observable in the case of a small North American tree, named the “shadbush,” named this because of its connection to the shad, a type of fish, which lives amongst the tree and is a linguistic marker for its seasonal patterns. However, this marker has been broken, as due to climate change, disturbances in ecological processes have caused the tree to flower earlier in the year. Thus, a historical relationship between natural indicators and the language used to describe them is severed. There is an inextricable link between culture, language, and the environment, that develop and co-exist in harmony. Due to climate change, this harmony is disrupted, causing changes to decades-long indigenous knowledge, language, and patterns. This connection illustrates how language and societal practices are not mutually exclusive, for many groups, they reinforce and shape one another. When one aspect is shifted or changed due to climate change, this destabilizes the long-standing traditional relationship developed over centuries. The effects of climate change fractures a once harmonious relationship, permanently disrupting intricate systems of language, culture, and ecology. Similarly, there is a stark connection between medicinal practices and linguistically unique identifications. Out of 12,495 medicinal plant services, over 75% of them are known only in one language, making them linguistically unique. The majority of these languages are indigenous and endangered, especially when considering that a main form of information sharing in these languages is passing it down orally. In this way, key medicinal information can be lost when these languages become endangered or go extinct.
In another light, many languages encode unique grammatical, phonological, and semantic features that are not found elsewhere. These features are not only important for academia, but are distinct ways of perceiving and interacting with the world. When such languages go extinct, the embedded cultural knowledge, unique characteristics, and oral history goes with it. For instance, the language Rotokas, spoken on the island of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea, exemplifies this uniqueness as it uses the smallest amount of sounds of any language recorded, having only 5 vowels and 6 consonants. Being the most phonetically minimal language ever recorded, and its defiance of traditional linguistic structure, this illustrates the intricacies of human language and communication. However, due to the language’s decline, the information gathered from the last remaining speakers holds only a fragment of the complexities that the language had when it was more widely spoken. Similarly, the way that we communicate and structure our sentences can shape our perception of the world and information we wish to convey. For many lesser spoken languages, they are often also the most complex, interesting, and unique in their structure. In 1970, a language spoken by only 350 people on the Nhamundá River in Brazil was discovered, named Hixkaryana. This is the only known language to structure their sentences by putting the object initially in a sentence, meaning that the structuring of the English sentence “Mary read a book,” would be structured as “A book read Mary” when translated in Hixkaryana. Studying these languages offers invaluable insight into our perception and communication, this unique example illustrates how complex and diverse language can be globally. If languages are lost, distinct features are lost, that not only are important for academic study, but for culture, understanding, and engaging with the world.
V. Preservation Methods
In light of the aforementioned issues of language and culture loss, it is imperative that there are steps being taken to preserve and protect these linguistic and cultural aspects of vulnerable populations. In order to effectively preserve the unique characteristics, practices, traditions, and ways of life of many groups, their means of communication that are intertwined with these aspects must be preserved. Two major approaches have emerged that focus on preservation: immersion programs and language documentation. Through these strategies, the aim is to provide an environment for transmission and learning for younger generations, while storing essential information on languages that have the potential to be lost. While these methods differ in application and implementation, they are part of a deeper, long-term goal of preserving elements of culture and language.
A. Immersion Programs
Language immersion programs, ranging from community-based language exposure to formal school-based instruction, are vital tools in revitalizing endangered languages by fostering intergenerational transmission and active use among younger generations. Maori immersion programs began in New Zealand, after 1980, when a large majority of the population had shifted to speaking English as their primary language, immersion “language nest” programs were created in order to help children learn and use the language. In this instance, children were placed with elders in the community throughout the day who spoke to them only in Maori, resulting in effective outcomes for these young children. By learning in a natural environment where meaningful conversations are prioritized over institutional academic practices in a school setting, this produces effective results. Immersion programs have been implemented in other regions, such as in the United States, where younger members of the Dine’ tribe in the Navajo Nation entered elementary school immersion programs. This strategy differs from the Maori language nest strategy, where instead of facilitating natural conversation, they focus on school-based immersion. While well intentioned, this strategy had limited positive outcomes, where only 4% of students are fluent Dine’ speakers, and many students were memorizing the language without understanding what it meant. The contrast in these strategies reveal how there are dimensions of immersion strategies to be considered: the effectiveness of school-based programs versus community-based interaction. Despite more positive results with authentic interaction, there are variables that may hinder this process, especially when native speakers are dwindling, lack of resources or funding for programs, and the hegemonic use of standardized languages for jobs and societal functioning.
B. Documentation
Preservation through documentation of languages, especially critically endangered ones, can have many positive benefits, such as aiding in revitalization and academic contributions.
However, these efforts must be guided by the community members, as it is ultimately up to them whether they permit their linguistic and cultural features to be collected and documented. Thus, any attempt by fieldworkers and linguists in preservation efforts must be done transparently with the goal of contributing positively, rather than exploiting any group. When carried out responsibly, there are many instances of research and documentation work contributing positively to the preservation of different endangered languages and cultural expressions. A notable example of an archive aimed at preservation is The Pangloss Collection, beginning in 1994 at the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). This archive provides open access specifically for endangered language records, where the documentation is spontaneous speech within cultural contexts. In doing so, it aims to capture the nuance and authenticity of the language as it is naturally spoken, rather than reducing it to data that risks losing its cultural meaning and context. It has amassed over 1,400 recordings in 70 languages, with many of them having accompanying transcriptions and annotations for further reference. Projects such as this one emphasize the important role that community centered documentation has. By prioritizing context based documentation, the languages preserved within the database are able to retain both their linguistic structure, and the cultural and social meanings embedded within them. In another light, there are examples of other institutions providing support, with organizations such as the U.S. National Science Foundation and UNESCO funding initiatives with the goal of preservation through archives and data repositories. Documentation can be a method of storing and immortalizing endangered languages in a way that is accessible from across the globe. When done ethically, it can be a valuable medium that empowers communities by preserving history, culture, and linguistic heritage on their own terms.
VI. Conclusion
Climate change and political oppression are two major factors that have, and continue to, contribute to a rapid decline in language and culture loss for many indigenous and minority communities. There is a direct link between observable social hierarchies and an inability to lessen human activities causing climate change, contributing to dominant groups flourishing while many indigenous communities bear a burden they did not create nor contribute to. In turn, there are major threats to global diversity, systems of knowledge, and deeply ingrained facets of identity that indigenous cultures often link to language and cultural practices. The forces driving this issue are deeply interlinked. Forced migration, changes in ecological patterns, and centuries of oppressive regimes as a whole reflect broader inequalities across the globe. As many languages decline and eventually vanish, so does cultural knowledge, ecological knowledge, and unique linguistic features that contribute and expand our understanding of society, connection, and humanity. It is pertinent to recognize that this issue, one that is often overlooked, reflects the broader systems of inequality across the globe, and holds long term consequences for marginalized groups. Going forward, when understanding and preserving these linguistic and cultural features, it requires a nuanced understanding of the interconnected issues at play. When groups are subjected to extreme external forces that threaten their culture and way of life, they must have the final say in how to go forward with upholding vital elements of their culture.
The Global Affairs Journal 
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