Identity of Plants Might Be at Greater Risk in the Future

[Guest guest]

Hi y'all,

 

Taking a break from work and relaxing a bit now .. ;-p I read an

interesting article in the Turkish Daily News .. Routers in Paris ..

title is, " Half the World's Languages Under Threat. "

 

The study was edited by the late Professor Stephen Wurm, an Australian

linguist of Hungarian origin who spoke some 50 languages .. Professor

Wurm recently died. To cut it down .. here are some of the highlights.

 

* Due to pressure from dominant languages, half of the 6,000 or so

languages are under threat and along with their demise goes a wealth of

human knowledge.

 

* In Japan, only eight elderly people spoke Ainu on Hokkaido Island by

the late 1980s after decades of official neglect, but promotional

policies have since revived the language. Conclusion was that a

determined multilingual approach can rescue even the most threatened

tongues.

 

I'll add that Ottoman Turkish is not spoken by anyone in Turkey under

the age of 85 or 90 .. with the exception of a few scholars. I found a

fantastic hand-written book on plants in an old bazaar .. but I can't

get it translated.

 

* In Africa, between 500-600 of the 1,400 or so local languages are on

the decline and 250 or so are under immediate threat.

 

* In Asia, the situation for minority languages is unknown but in China,

the situation is assumed to be drastic.

 

* In Europe, 50 or more languages are at risk .. including the Celtic

languages of Britain, several of the Saami or Lappish tongues spoken in

Scandanavia and northern Russia and varieties or Romani spoken by

Gypsies.

 

* The study cites the Americans and Australians as having the worst

record over the past 100 years, with hundreds of Aboriginal languages

now extinct in Australia due to assimilation policies that persisted

until around 1970.

 

The study doesn't go into details of the American losses but we can

assume it refers to the Native American languages.

 

* The disappearance of languages is a natural event in human development

that has been going on for many thousands of years ... but at a much

slower rate.

 

* The study claims that, The loss of any language means a contraction,

reduction and impoverishment of the sum total of the reservoir of human

thought and knowledge as expressible through language. "

 

* It goes on to say, " To give just a few examples, many highly effective

medicinal plants are known only to people in traditional cultures .. "

when their languages and cultures are lost, the knowledge about the

plants and their healing properties is lost too. "

 

This one I will comment on .. because I fully agree with the conclusion.

Here in Turkey, the peasants have their own names for aromatic plants -

but those names change from area to area. I had to learn them long ago

because they are not able to discuss botanical names ... nor are they

willing to learn .. they think it is silly. They are speaking the same

language .. generally .. though there are areas of Southeast Turkey and

along the Black Sea coast where distinct languages are spoken - but I'm

not convinced that they are dying out.

 

Sometimes, I use local names when discussing plants with professors who

are fully aware of the botanical names .. its a cultural thing here and

I expect its the same in most countries where the common local name is

used for nostalgic reasons. Also, I like to use the peasant dialogues

when I can because it makes me appear more Turkish than other Americans

who speak Turkish .. ;-p

 

But until a plant is identified .. and that is not always easy .. the

peasants are often the only ones to know it and also are the ones who

will lead the taxonomist or botanist to the plant .. without their

assistance, verifying or authoring the species may never happen. Thus,

the outside world will not benefit from that plant.

 

I'm not sure there is anything we can or want to do about this .. just

thought it was interesting trivia. :-)

 

Y'all keep smiling, Butch http://www.AV-AT.com

 

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