Dayrit, Jules Hedwig S.

2008-67937

December 13, 2012 SEA 30 Linguistics Reflection Paper

The Arta Language When I was looking for languages to cover for this requirement, it was quite hard to find ones which were properly documented. This was the first hurdle I encountered. Granted, the languages by virtue of being rare and dying can be hard to track, let alone study, so I cant really blame people. At my most desperate, I even almost resorted to just getting a language and discussing it using its most well documented cousin as a medium, but that would be defeating the purpose. Although I still made remarks about common languages in my video, the resource I found provided enough information for me to make something of it. Which brings me to my next plight; actually understanding what was written. Im not a linguistics major nor do I plan to shift (although the stories of your escapades that youve shared with us piqued my interest in the topic). So the paper I got about the Arta language made little sense to me (with the knowledge I had from the effective three weeks Ive been studying linguistics). The study of language itself is a tedious task, and it hit me then and there that I wont be making an analysis on par with people who actually live for this. But requirements are requirements, so I still have to give my best. And in giving your best but seeing unsatisfactory results, you feel defeat, and I was no different. This now is my last hurdle, a bout with frustration led me to rethink existence in general. That it is true entire cultures can be lost with just their language being taken away. I was so vexed that this happened so frequently but I couldnt do anything about it. There is so much to learn, and in not attempting to learn these facets of human life, we risk the loss of knowledge; the loss of other worldviews. This isnt isolated with Arta, every dying language is a trove of information we can use, and those troves are slowly dying off. A sad thought still is that even if we do start to learn about these languages, it may be too late, as globalization along with the concept of a world language spreads to fast and consumes all in its path. I see no way for the linguists to keep up, which is why the threat of linguistic extinction must be brought out to a higher plane of concern. More people must involve themselves in at letting their language live on. And to those who cant, people must come to their aid, because the less languages there is left in the world, the less we actually know of it.