Preserving At-risk Languages

While attention is often given to species of birds and animals in danger of becoming extinct, languages enduring a similar fate seem to go unnoticed. Faculty in Rice’s departments of linguistics and anthropology, however, not only are cognizant of the problem, they’re conducting research to preserve some of those languages and the cultural knowledge at risk of being lost as well.

“We are facing a very grave situation with language endangerment,” says Matt Shibatani, the Deedee McMurtry Professor of Humanities and chair of the Department of Linguistics. He estimates that half of the 6,000 living languages are expected to vanish within the next 100 years as dominant European languages displace minority languages due to the socioeconomic status and influence that speakers of the more dominant languages have in the global community. “We’re losing minority languages that might have interesting stories to tell us,” Shibatani says.

With a $15,000 grant from Rice’s Shell Center for Sustainability, Shibatani and colleagues Gail Coelho and Stephen Tyler are concentrating their efforts on Betta Kurumba—the language spoken by a community of fewer than 2,000 people living near the Nilgiri Mountains in southern India. The Rice team is particularly interested in the cultural knowledge of how Betta Kurumba speakers manage natural resources.

Coelho, a postdoctoral fellow in linguistics, has compiled a vocabulary list for this native Indian language, but she plans to return there following the spring semester to study the culture. She will record the natives’ narratives about their lives and videotape their daily activities.

“We need to document the transmission of knowledge from the old to the young,” Coelho says. Her concern is that the government is forcing the natives to replace some of their traditions with modern approaches, which could result in the loss of words and knowledge that have played a role in the people’s development. For example, the Indians in this region have traditionally been self-sustaining, living in forests and building houses out of bamboo and grass. The government has been trying to replace these dwellings with houses made of concrete and bricks.

When Coelho made her first field trip to the region in 1995, all the residents lived in bamboo houses. She’s been back three times since then, only to discover roofs replaced with zinc sheeting and homes made of concrete. “Although some see the attempt to provide concrete houses and metal roofs as a developmental effort, this actually induces the group to give up its previous self-reliance and become dependent on the government for its housing needs,” she says. “At best, the house-building knowledge of this group must be recorded before it gets lost together with the houses themselves. The next generation will never have to build houses, so the historic knowledge of where to get bamboo and grass and how to use it will not get passed down.”

Vocabulary terms related to such tasks will go by the wayside as well since there no longer will be a need for them. That’s why Coelho wants to create a written record of the language and customs. “Every language is, in a sense, a separate world,” says Tyler, the Herbert S. Autrey Professor of Anthropology and Linguistics, who will help interpret what the language reveals about the Indians. “Once the language is no longer spoken and you don’t have a proper record of it, you’ve lost that domain of how humans have adapted to the world and to themselves.”

Another reason for creating a record of the language is that changes to the land are making words obsolete. Many of the tropical rainforests in the Nilgiri Mountains have been converted to tea and coffee plantations. “If the herbs, animals, and birds in an area are killed off,” Coelho says, “the residents will no longer have a need for the words describing the things that no longer exist.”

Through a longitudinal study of these Indians over the next five years or so, the Rice researchers hope to observe the impact modern changes are having on the language and culture. They also hope to contribute to native language literacy and avert the threat of language loss by developing educational materials that will enable Betta Kurumba children to get some of their school education in their native language.

Shibatani, who will spend a month in India with Coelho, says sustainable development must incorporate cultural diversity and take into account how people interact with their environment. “Biodiversity and linguistic diversity go hand in hand,” he said. “One cannot be studied without the other because they’re so interdependent.”

—B. J. Almond