Jumping on the Bandwagon
Now, wait just a minute....
1. Who decides which "dialect" is standardized? This is a power play just waiting to happen.
2. Have linguists analyzed all these "dialects" and determined they're truly all variants of one common language, or is this just another fuzzy dividing line scenario?
3. Standardized and written languages do tend to last longer simply because the printed word has more longevity than speech. But, standardized languages inevitably lose some of their vitality for the sake of preservation. The natural process of language change is slowed and sometimes even forcibly halted. Which is not necessarily good or useful.
4. Have they considered sending ethnographers/linguists to record all of the language variants? So there's at least some record of regional diversity when/if this standardization/sterilization takes place.
1. Who decides which "dialect" is standardized? This is a power play just waiting to happen.
2. Have linguists analyzed all these "dialects" and determined they're truly all variants of one common language, or is this just another fuzzy dividing line scenario?
3. Standardized and written languages do tend to last longer simply because the printed word has more longevity than speech. But, standardized languages inevitably lose some of their vitality for the sake of preservation. The natural process of language change is slowed and sometimes even forcibly halted. Which is not necessarily good or useful.
4. Have they considered sending ethnographers/linguists to record all of the language variants? So there's at least some record of regional diversity when/if this standardization/sterilization takes place.
Labels: anthropology, language
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