How to save endangered languages

Mathematician Anne Kandler built a model to show how a language is gradually forgotten and tell us how to keep its vitality.

Veronica Greenwood

(The road signs of the Scottish Stadium have their Scottish Gaelic counterparts in every English expression.)

There is a word 100 in Inuit for snow. Although this statement is exaggerated-there are dozens at most-there are indeed many lovely quirks in the language of a region, revealing the cultural characteristics of this region. Scottish Gaelic, for example, was first used by highland people and later used in fishing villages. Since then, in Scottish Gaelic, there are many special words about algae besides every structure of rabbit trap and special words of shell-less eggs.

Although some people find these details interesting, the unfortunate news is that our language is disappearing at an unprecedented rate-one language disappears every fourteen days-and linguists are running around with tape recorders and vocabulary to record even a few words before they disappear. Anne Kaendler, a mathematician from Santa Fe Institute, believes that the only way to preserve ancient languages is to make people realize the value of these languages, whether out of patriotism, cultural heritage or just to attract tourists who are curious about languages.

If you are sure that your mother tongue should be passed on. What would you do?

Mathematicians may be able to help linguists on this issue. A few years ago, Kaendler and her colleagues decided to make a mathematical model about endangered language users. It is used to provide an experimental environment for a project aimed at encouraging people to learn local languages. They chose Scottish Gaelic as the experimental case because there are statistics on the number of people who have used this language for more than 100 years. Scottish Gaelic experienced its prosperity and decline, and the English authorities launched a series of actions, such as the Battle of Kaloden and clearing the highlands, in an attempt to make it disappear. However, in the past decade, there has been a movement to greatly increase the number of Gaelic users, Gaelic radio programs, Gaelic weather forecasts have appeared one after another, and even Gaelic interest classes have been opened for children.

Mathematicians build models that contain figures from all aspects of Scottish life, and they use these figures to outline a map of Gaelic development. Some of these figures are obvious-you must know how many people you work with can only speak Gaelic, how many can only speak English, how many can use two languages at the same time, and what percentage of Gaelic speakers have given up using this language. At the same time, some figures in this model represent the reputation of each language-how much cultural value people think it can produce by using this language, and some figures describe the economic value of this language.

(Kaendler's model: each partial differential equation corresponds to a group of language users: English, Gaelic and bilingual. Variables represent all aspects of social situations; For example, C 12 and C32 indicate the possibility of bilinguals becoming monolinguals. )

By bringing all the equations into a set of equations representing the growth of three groups-English group, Gaelic group and bilingual group, we can calculate how much investment is needed to cultivate a stable number of bilinguals. In 20 10, Kaendler found that using the current figures, 860 English speakers need to learn Gaelic every year, so as to ensure that the number of people who use this language remains unchanged. For her, this is a considerable number, but the National Gaelic Development Agency is very satisfied with this number. When Kaendler's findings were published, a spokesman for the institution told The Scot: This figure is similar to the number of bilinguals they plan to train through Gaelic courses and programs. In addition, if more Gaelic-speaking parents start to teach their children to use this language, thus increasing the number of Gaelic-speaking parents, the number of bilingual users who need new training can be reduced by half.

The Gaelic census in Scotland was completed on 20 1 1. People are analyzing these figures, and Kaendler is anxiously waiting for the results of these figures.

Kaendler's model only applies to Scottish Gaelic. Other endangered languages, such as Quechua, Chinook and Istrad, need special models to consider these factors because of their different cultural conditions. For example, the PuHebraud people around Santa Fe have few language users-hundreds at most-and according to the estimation of many linguists, this language should have disappeared a long time ago. However, it has been handed down. It is hoped that through further research by a group of scientists such as Kaendler, the secret of this language's well-preserved can be uncovered, and whether this method can be applied to other endangered languages can be explored to maintain its vitality.