High-Q | פסיכומטרי - מרתון

Text II (Questions 6-10)

The death of languages has occurred many times in history. Localized disasters such as floods or warfare have played a part in the destruction, but in modern times the spread of Europeans and their diseases has greatly accelerated it. Local languages may be overpowered by a metropolitan language, thus increasing the pressure to neglect the ancestral tongue in favor of the new one, which is seen as the key to prospering in the dominant culture. Children may be 5 forbidden to use their mother tongue in the classroom, as has occurred to many groups, including the Welsh and Aboriginal Australians. Speakers of minority languages have been forcibly relocated and combined with speakers of other languages, as happened when Africans were brought to America as slaves. Practices such as these have made Native American languages the most imperiled of any on earth. 10 The death of a language is not only a tragedy for those directly involved but also an irretrievable cultural loss for the world. To save the world ’ s languages, linguists are following a two-fold approach. For moribund languages - languages spoken only by the elderly - they attempt to preserve vocabulary, grammar, sounds and traditions, so that scholars and descendants can learn them later. Many linguists believe moribund languages should be given priority, because 15 they are in imminent danger. In the case of endangered languages - languages which are no longer learned by most children, and whose youngest speakers are middle-aged-linguists can give advice on language maintenance, and teach the language to young people. According to one estimate, about 3000 languages - half of all those now spoken - are threatened with extinction, either endangered or moribund. About half of these have been 20 adequately studied, and several hundred more may be analyzed over the next decade. Given the low cost of conducting a solid study of an imperiled language - often well under $100,000 - the worldwide effort to preserve languages would seem to be a cost-effective cultural investment

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