When languages die : the extinction of the world's languages and the erosion of human knowledge / K. David Harrison.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Harrison, K. David.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Language obsolescence.

Langage et langues--Disparition.

Local Subjects:

Langage et langues--Disparition.

Physical Description:

x, 292 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2007.

Summary:

In When Languages Die, K. David Harrison illustrates the individual face of language loss, as well as its global scale. Languages are the accretion of thousands of years of a peopleʼs science and art - from observations of ecological patterns to creation myths. The author shows that the disappearance of a language is a loss not only for the community of speakers itself but also for our common human knowledge of mathematics, biology, geography, philosophy, agriculture, and linguistics. In this century, we face a massive erosion of the human knowledge base. The global abandonment of indigenous languages will bring a massive loss of accumulated knowledge and culture - this book argues for the irreplaceable nature of these unique knowledge systems and the urgency of documenting them before they are lost forever. Book jacket.

Includes information on Australia, calendars, creation myths, directions, epics, fish, folksonomy, genetics, grammar, Himalayan mountains, horse, indigenous people, knowledge, literacy, maps, metaphor, months, naming, nomads, oral traditions, Os (middle Chulym), Papua New Guinea, place names, reindeer, rivers, shamans, sign languages, singing, song, species, taxonomy, units of time, time reckoning, Tofa (Tofalar, Karagas), Tuvan, writing systems, Yukaghir, etc.

Contents:

A world of many (fewer) voices

An extinction of (ideas about) species

Case study: vanishing herds and reindeer words

Many moons ago: traditional calendars and time-reckoning

Case study: nomads of western Mongolia

An atlas in the mind

Case study: wheel of fortune and a blessing

Silent storytellers, lost legends

Case study: new rice versus old knowledge

Endangered number systems: counting to twenty on your toes

Case study: the leaf-cup people, India's modern 'primitives'

Worlds within words.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 263-283) and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Harrison, K. David. When languages die.

ISBN:

9780195181920

0195181921

9780195372069

0195372069

OCLC:

65425996

Online:

Publisher description