BBC: Saving dead languages

And now that we've done our hellos, let's some greetings in different languages from around the world. But what do these languages have in common?

I'm afraid I don't know what they have in common because I don't recognize any of them. 

Well, sadly the one thing uniting these languages is that they're all endangered. We often hear about animals at risk of extinction, but a recent study by the Australian National University found that out of the world's 7000 existing languages, half are under threat. 

But what can be done to save languages from dying out? That's what we'll be discussing in this programme, and, as usual, we'll be learning some useful new vocabulary as well. 

But first I have a question for you, Phil, and it's about a country which used to be one of the most linguistically rich places on Earth, Australia. Before European settlers arrived in the 1800s, Australia had over 200 languages spoken by the native Aboriginal people who had lived there for thousands of years. Many Aboriginal languages were destroyed by the brutal laws of the Australian government at the time, however some survived. So, which of the following Aboriginal languages is still spoken today?

Is it: a) Djinang   b) Alawa   or   c) Gagadu?

Hmm, I'll guess it's Djinang. 

OK, Phil, I'll reveal the answer later in the programme. The sad truth is that it was no accident that the Aboriginal languages died out, given the cruel treatment of Aboriginal people. Children were removed from their mothers and sent to schools thousands of miles away to learn English, and even today Aboriginal communities experience racism and poverty. 

Another Aboriginal language, Barngarla, officially died in 1960 when it's last native speaker, Elder Moonie Davis, passed away. But Barngarla has been brought back to life, and today it's spoken between parents and children, and even learned in school. 

So, how did a dead language with no living speakers come back to life? The unusual answer involves a dictionary and a professor of linguistics. Here's Professor Ghil'ad Zuckermann telling his story for BBC World Service programme, People Fixing The World.

I had a dictionary written by a German Lutheran Christian missionary in 1844. His name was Clamor Wilhelm Schumann, ahd he wrote the dictionary with up to 3500 words, which is a lot, because he wanted to Christianise the, in quotation marks, "heathens". So, it's a topsy-turvy, righting the wrong of the past, by using a tool written for one goal in order to achieve the diametrically oppostie goal. 

Professor Zuckemann found an English-to- Barngala dictionary written in 1844 by a German missionary- a person sent to a foreign country to teach their religion to the people living there. Christian missionaries used the dictionary to teach English to what they called "Aboriginal heathens". Heathen is an old-fashioned word for someone who belongs to no religion, or to a religion that is not Christianity, Judaism, or Islam. 

Professor Zuckermann puts the word "heathen" in quotation marks. The phrase 'in quotation marks' is used to show the actual words someone else has written or said, but here the phrase is used ironically. Professor Zuckermann is questioning the real meaning of the word "heathens". He is signaliing tghat the doesn't think Aboriginals are heathens at all, a bit like adding a wink at the end of a senctence so people know you're not serious. 

What's ironic is that Professor Zuckermann used the missionary's dictionary not to spread Christianity and English, but to save an Aboriginal language from extinction, so he calls it 'topsy-turvy'. meaning upside down. 

Professor Zuckermann also says he is 'righting  the wrongs of the past', a phrase which means doing something to correct a historical injustice from the past, in this case, the destruction of Aboriginal language and culture. 

Speaking your own language is about more than communication, it means knowing your roots and feeling good about yourself. I think it's time you reveal the answer to your quesiton, Neil.