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BY CLAUDIA SEIXAS

In print | March 22, 2007

Assistant Professor of Linguistics K. David Harrison’s new book “When Languages Die: The Extinction of the World’s Languages and the Erosion of Human Knowledge” looks at what is lost from scientific, linguistic and humanistic vantage points when a language dies by examining field studies of endangered languages in Siberia, Mongolia, the Himalayas, North America and elsewhere.

Harrison’s book is more commercially viable than many professors’ published works, and is accessible to a popular as well as an academic audience. On March 1, it ranked #128,642 in Amazon.com book sales. Because it tackles many humanistic concerns with an interdisciplinary approach, many reviewers recommend “When Languages Die” not only to linguists but to anthropologists and general readers. Linguistics major Nathaniel Peters ‘07 explained that a particular strength of Harrison’s is the multimedia approach he took to his research. “It’s pretty darn cool data,” Peters said. “Because of the nature of the research, Harrison could have come up with a lot of diagrams, but anyone who’s interested in singing songs can look at a video David has made and enjoy that.”

Harrison’s new book is relevant because it discusses the task of recording the unique perspectives on the world that disappear when a language dies, Peters said. “It’s very good that a book like this is being written because it’s simply true that when languages die, cultural repositories of knowledge about ‘being a human being’ will be lost, and languages are also just inherently beautiful,” he said. “When Languages Die” covers the concept of language extinction and sheds light on its relevance to human society and the human knowledge base. The book draws on Harrison’s own research and case studies that put him in contact with speakers of endangered languages — in some cases, the last known speakers of a language.

As a linguist, Harrison encourages his students to “discover” languages, many of which are undocumented and known only to its native speakers. “Eighty percent of the world’s languages are undocumented by science,” Harrison said. “There’s at least minimal documentation of only 15 to 20 percent of the world’s languages.”

“It’s amazing to be at a place like Swarthmore,” Harrison said. “The students are so global in their thinking. I like the activist climate here. When I say there is a language extinction crisis, I don’t have to start [explaining why it’s important] from scratch because people here understand that culture is something to be valued,” he said.

“The book is not only an appeal to linguists but it’s also trying to give an unsentimental answer to [the question]: Why should we care that languages are going extinct?” Harrison said. “Languages encode crucial knowledge about species and ecosystems about which Western science is still unaware of. We should try to do what we can to appreciate them.”

According to Harrison, 87 percent of the world’s living plant and animal species — excluding microbes — have yet to be identified, documented or classified by modern science. Indigenous cultures have very sophisticated knowledge systems appropriate to their particular niche in the world.

Many of these peoples harbor vital knowledge about the environment, animals and plants. Harrison presents a case study of reindeer herders in South Siberia who say “dongur” to indicate in one word “male domesticated reindeer in its third year and first mating season, but not ready for mating.” Such knowledge has been gathered over countless generations and passed on through oral tradition. “It’s arrogant and colonial of us to toss that knowledge on the scrapheap of history,” Harrison said.

“There’s a knowledge gap between western science and culture and indigenous cultures,” Harrison said. With environmentalism gathering attention throughout the world, Harrison argues that citizens of developed countries should be more attentive to the valuable resources that exist in these unique cultural depositories, resources that are in danger of dying out along with languages that transmit indigenous knowledge.

At last count, there are about 7,000 living languages, about half of which are projected to become extinct by the end of the 21st century. Harrison does not use the term “extinction” in the conventional literary sense. Rather, the term denotes the process by which globalization and urbanization allow dominant languages to overcrowd small and less spoken languages, prompting new generations of speakers to assimilate the prevailing language.

Shoydak-ool Khovalyg, an epic Tuvan storyteller, is one of the rare speakers Harrison highlights. Khovalyg told Harrison the tale of Bora, a woman on a quest to resurrect her dead brother who uses her magical powers and the help of a clever horse to change into a transgender disguise, complete with a goose-head as a fake penis.

Language extinction destroys cultural heritage, since stories like those told by the Tuvan storyteller are only transmitted orally. According to Harrison, this results in the deterioration of the human knowledge base. “Unique language systems give human insights into how the world works. Since we don’t know everything about the universe, it’s foolish to squander this information,” Harrison said.

Sentimentality can often disrupt the process of aiding endangered languages by shifting the focus to preservation, when the goals of linguists like Harrison are to document, maintain and revitalize the endangered languages. Living Tongues (http://www.livingtongues.org) is a non-profit organization Harrison helped found to address exactly those issues. “I’m trying to do both science and activism,” Harrison said. It’s up to the community to decide whether they will submit to globalization or attempt to pass down their language to future generations, Harrison said.

Harrison and Living Tongues’ mission is to give back to the community, whether in the form of providing them with a storybook in their language (sometimes the first book to be published), documentation or sound recordings. Harrison has co-authored a Tuvan grammar dictionary and is currently working with the National Geographic Society to travel, research, visit and map out hot spots of language endangerment and diversity.

Recently, Harrison has moved beyond what he covered in his book to develop an idea he described as “the triple threat.” “What I’m trying to show in my work is how the biosphere is linked to the ethnosphere, and the relationship between language extinction and knowledge systems and extinction of species,” Harrison said. Harrison has taught linguistics courses at Swarthmore including phonetics, phonology, the structure of Tuvan and a seminar on endangered languages, the latter two of which are based largely on Harrison’s research.

Harrison Magee ’09, who works with Harrison, agreed about the importance of studying languages that are in danger of disappearing.

“Learning about an endangered language is such a beneficial thing to study on many levels, not only to learn about linguistics, but also human knowledge, how we talk, people and culture and ethnicity,” he said. The Endangered Languages Lab works to create online talking dictionaries and other resources for endangered languages.

According to Harrison, “we’re really in desperate need of linguists. Linguists get to meet people in amazing places and learn knowledge systems that have never been described. The feeling of really truly communicating with someone in their native language when only 50 other people speak it is very rewarding.”

“Studying an endangered language will tell you things you’ll otherwise never know,” Magee said.Students reciprocate Harrison’s enthusiasm for the field. “The greatest strength that David has is that he does very interesting, very relevant research and integrates that into what he does in the classroom,” Peters said. “I think he’s absolutely a wonderful professor.”

“When Languages Die” is available in McCabe Library on the new book shelf.

Disclosure note: Nathaniel Peters is a columnist for The Phoenix and had no role in the production of this article.

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