Preserving Diversity to Create Unity: Saving Indigenous Languages in Modern Times

The tolls of globalization have hit indigenous communities harder than any other. After surviving literal extermination at the hands of European colonialists, native cultures around the world now face a more symbolic eradication as the world shrinks smaller and increasingly homogeneous. National Geographic anthropologist Wade Davis sees the extinction of language as one of the most vital factors in the loss of culture and ethnicity: "language isn't just a body of vocabulary, it's a flash of the human spirit...the vehicle through which the soul of each culture comes into the material world." He says that every two weeks a language dies. Today, of the 6,000 linguistic groups still alive in the world, some are spoken by such minuscule numbers of people that less than 0.2% of the world's population speaks half of our languages. The loss of traditional communication is a slippery slope toward the assimilation, acculturation, and possibly eventual annihilation of indigenous peoples.

Ten years ago, the phenomenon of language loss was largely regarded as an inevitable consequence of modernization. Davis notes that traditional societies were often seen as failed attempts at modernity, best to be left in history. The threats to local languages arise from discrimination by government and majority populations, which led indigenous citizens - especially the younger members - to choose mainstream assimilation in order to advance socio-economically. This led to a generational divide where elders were no longer passing language down to their youth. But culture is not static, no matter how ancient it is, and in recent years a new force for the preservation of languages has emerged and strengthened. Largely through the widespread facility of telecommunication, indigenous groups from around the world began to converse and realize that they face the same threats from Australia to Peru to North America. These commonalities have led to the unity amongst threatened communities and a global struggle to adapt technology to their reality. Today this movement has become full-force, and even the United Nations has taken notice by declaring 2008 the "International Year of Languages."

With this recognition that multi-lingualism is an important part of our society, many tools have emerged to preserve endangered languages. Using simple digital recording, local communities can record conversations, stories and songs to then send via e-mail or upload online. One of the biggest tasks in making the internet a more inclusive tool has been to translate browsers into minority languages. This has been especially important in Africa, where the inequality that has increased with globalization is so visible. By making the web more accessible, and therefore more democratic, education is improved by allowing more people to master basic computer skills which then spurs them to continue to enhance local language content, increasing the diversity of voices expressed online. This also has implications for traditional cultures that were historically held in low-esteem and seen as contrary to development. Enlace Quiche is an organization that is creating information communication technologies (ICTs) to train intercultural and bilingual educators in Guatemala. They have developed an online vocabulary in the local language, K'iche', and have found that when children use computers in their native language, "the lessons learned go far beyond mastering basic computer skills. Students are learning that their indigenous language and culture are a vital part of their society."

With the growth of esteem within native communities, the rising generation has sought out ways to merge their grandparents' traditions with the universal youth culture that they are surrounded by. One format that has lent itself with facility to indigenous youth is hip hop, which is all the more easily accessible and transmittable with new forms of global telecommunications on the web. In Africa, there was a period where hip hop thrived merely imitating American gangsta rap, using English slang and profanities. Today we see the emergence of hip hop that relates more to the realities of Africans, and with this the expanding use of local languages in the music. Often the fusion of native dialects with English and French creates wholly new vocabularies, which also has the effect of reviving and incorporating older, dying languages into modern society. In similar vein, Local Noise is a site funded by the Australian Research Council that focuses on Australian hip hop. They found that the storytelling aspects and multicultural roots of hip hop give it particular strength to be adapted to the aboriginal context. In "Indigenising Hip-Hop," one female MC talks about the ease in relating the four essential elements of hip hop to her Fijian traditions: DJing is like alali drumming; graffiti like cave painting; MCing is like her grandfather's public speaking around the kava bowl; and breakdancing is like traditional Fijian dance. Today there are numerous blogs, record labels, festivals and competitions dedicated to promoting native hip hop and cultural exchange. While often times the listeners cannot understand the language that the musician is rapping in, they comprehend the subject because they too have lived through such experiences.

As the International Year of Languages comes to a close, the evolving inclusiveness of the web and the capitalization of this trend by native communities is hopeful. While it remains to be seen if this will stem the disappearance of languages, the mere global concentration on preservation seems to be reversing the trend. With the rising recognition that encouraging the development of multi-cultural, multi-lingual citizens is beneficial for not only traditional communities but also for overall progress of the nation-state, the youngest generation around the world is in the perfect situation to pursue this potential. They no longer need to choose between modernization and the customs of their ancestors, between globalization and traditions. By beginning to view cultures as a dynamic, progressive entity we can promote preservation of endangered societies rather than leaving them to the history books.