There are many things that influence languages around the world. This section will look at some of them. We will first look at how colonization has affected different parts of the world. We will then look at language death in more detail and where and why it is happening.

Colonization’s Effect on India:

     Language is the medium of communication and therefore has a great influence on the success of a colonization effort in a country. This is one means by which one country can work to gain control over the colonized country. Let us consider India. The British, the French, and the Portuguese all attempted to establish colonies in India, and we know the British were the most successful. Lord Macaulay’s address to the British parliament on February 2, 1835 is very interesting in this context. Please read what he said.

     “I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such calibre, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and, therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self-esteem, their native culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation.”

     Lord Macaulay identifies India’s spiritual and cultural heritage to be her backbone and proposes to destroy these as a path for successful colonization. He also correctly surmised that replacing the native languages with English would result in a ruling class more understanding and accepting of English culture. He convinced the governor general to replace Sanskrit and Arabic in the institutions of higher learning with English. This resulted in India letting go of her cultural practices in favor of the new English practices which were perceived to be better.  Once the language of a country has been replaced, the existing culture becomes gradually diluted with the new one.  

     Today we have a better understanding of the richness to culture that various languages provide and understand what is lost when these languages disappear.

Sources:

Macaulay, Lord Thomas. “Address to Parliament 1835”.  Accessed January 15, 2009.

<http://sanesociety.wordpress.com /2008/01/21/lord-macaulays- address-to-the-british-parliament/>

Kelly, Gail P. and Philip G. Altbach, Colonial Education. <http://www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/Education.html >  Accessed January 15, 2009.

Picture Source:  

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ commons/2/2c/Thomas_Babington_Macaulay %2C_1st_Baron_Macaulay_-_Project_ Gutenberg_eText_13103.jpg.

Used under the common commons license. From the Gutenberg Project.