Why do people preserve local languages KEY ISSUE

Why do people preserve local languages? KEY ISSUE 4

PRESERVING LANGUAGE DIVERSITY Extinct languages – _____________________________________– only a few older people use them – are not passing them down Africa – 46 Americas – 170 Asia -78 Europe – 12 Pacific – 210 Linguists believe there are only about 300 safe languages

HEBREW – REVIVING EXTINCT LANGUAGES _______________________(except a small part in Aramaic) When the Jewish state of Israel was established in 1948, _______________________ Hebrew was chosen as a _______________, who were refugees or migrants from many different areas Revival was difficult since _____________________________________. Eliezer Ban-Yehudah invented 4000 words, dictionary

ISOLATED LANGUAGES ___________________ __ Basque – ______________________________________survives from the period before the arrival of Indo-European speakers – ______________________________. Icelandic – is related to other North Germanic languages, but it has changed very little over the last 1, 000 yrs –

GLOBAL DOMINANCE OF ENGLISH _________________________ __. Lingua franca ___________________________________________. Other modern lingua francas – Swahili in east Africa, Hindustani in South Asia, Indonesian in southeast Asia, Russian in the former Soviet Union

RAPID GROWTH OF ENGLISH Importance of English is demonstrated by: _____of European Union students learn English in middle and high school 500 million worldwide speak English as a ____________________. Many more have a working knowledge of it Japan has considered making English ______________________.