Can Minority Languages Be Saved? Globalization vs. Culture
http://www.omniglot.com/language/articles/minority_languages.php http://www.omniglot.com/language/articles/minority_languages.pdf by Eric Garland The increasing mobility of people, goods, and information has driven a powerful trend toward cultural uniformity and the extinction of local languages. But languages that have young people, business, and government on their side are alive and thriving. Globalized economics and media are changing the face of culture around the globe, reducing the number of languages that humans speak. As the world economy becomes more integrated, a common tongue has become more important than ever to promote commerce, and that puts speakers of regional dialects and minority languages at a distinct disadvantage. In addition, telecommunications has pressured languages to become more standardized, further squeezing local variations of language. Over the past 500 years, as nationstates developed and became more centralized, regional dialects and minority languages have been dominated by the centrist dialects of the ruling parties. Cornish has given way to English, Breton to French, Bavarian to High German, and Fu-jian-wa to Cantonese. Linguists concur that minority languages all over the world are giving way to more dominant languages, such as English, Mandarin, and Spanish, among others. The realities of commerce and the seductive power of world pop culture are placing pressure on speakers of minority languages to learn majority languages or suffer the consequences: greater difficulty doing business, less access to information, etc. These pressures are inducing a rapid die-off of languages around the world. Languages have been disappearing steadily, with 3,000 of the world's languages predicted to disappear in the next 100 years. According to the United Nations Environment Program, there are 5,000 to7,000 spoken languages in the world, with 4,000 to 5,000 of these classed as indigenous, used by native tribes. More than 2,500 are in danger of immediate extinction, and many more are losing their link with the natural world, becoming museum pieces rather than living languages. Futurists have noted this loss with no little despair, for significant, culturally specific information may disappear along with a language. For instance, knowledge about unique medicines and treatments used by aboriginal groups could be lost forever if the language used to transmit that information is banned by a majority culture. The common wisdom is that globalization is the wave of the future, and in many respects this is undeniable. However, swept up in this conventional wisdom is the notion that languages and cultures will simply cease to exist, and people will instead choose "global" cultures and languages that will transcend boundaries. An extremely interesting article that sheds light on an issue that many of here should be aware of.

Is Fujian-wa the Cantonese for Ban Lam Gu? If it is, I speak quite a bit of it. And I don't think it is really endangered, outside of China that is. In the mainland, I'm not quite sure, but here in the Philippines and many places in SEA, it's quite alive. Though the trend has been for Fujianese migrant children to learn Mandarin not Cantonese

Is Fujian-wa the Cantonese for Ban Lam Gu? I really don't know. I just hope that an effort is made to prevent these types of things from happening.

What types of things? I only recognize Fujian in the compound, which is that province. The language is known here also as Lan nang oe.

While having diverse languages can be a good thing, I think that the world's major languages will eventually win out over the smaller ones. Even if people try to save the minority languages, the major ones will continue to grow. I doubt that we will all end up speaking the same language, but a few will take over.

I didn't mean any specific current language, but some languages are growing, and displacing or killing off smaller languages as they gain more speakers. Eventually, I think, most of the world will be speaking just a few major languages. It doesn't matter what these languages are, but they'll take over.

Would it be effective if the conlanging community could rally up people to learn dying languages? I would gladly learn some. I just can't find sources, or have the money needed to use them (9th grade budget REALLY stinks...)

Those interested in pursuing a degree in linguistics can find many positions available to those interested in studying and preserving dying languages. Here is an example: http://www.ling.pdx.edu/childs/DKB_Web/Mn_DKB_ResearchAssistant.html Click the 'Methods' link for a view of the faces of language death.

Less seriously, see this link.

In reality there really is very little that can be done, in my opinion, to save endangered languages other than for people to adopt them and use them. Money really isn't so much an issue, and throwing money at the problem can actually hurt. For instance as the Irish govt has worked to develop the Gaelthacht regions of the country, the development itself has simply brought in more English speakers!