Blog Post 14- Podcast on Endangered Languages

This link will take you to our Podcast, where we explain how there are more than 7000 languages in the world. These languages include endangered languages, smaller languages are depleting every two weeks. As a group of three, we had to provide information about an endangered language of our choice. Our group decided to inform the audience about the Hawaiian Language as many people around the worl believe that the language is not dying but in fact its depleting with only 1000 native speaker remaining..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj2GjTUS-qU

Blog Post 13 - Speaking in Tongues

What did medieval linguist Antonio de Nebrija mean when he told Queen Isabella that: “language is the perfect instrument of empire?” How has language contributed to colonial power? Focus on a specific example.

In my opinion, throughout the generations, because we can communicate using language, we can safely say that we understand that a language is a powerful tool of which keeps a culture together. We may see language as a way to communicate with one another, but it is more than that, it has power. "Language is the perfect instrument of empire." This statement Antonia de Nebrija has presented demonstrates how a language can overrule other languages due to the most dominant language being used in colonization, meaning that the most dominant language spoken will be that particular language, therefore, it is what brings people together like an empire. When Nebrija means by the “perfect instrument” he uses a metaphor to allow the readers to understand that language can be the most sufficient way to bring a colony together. If we were to look at an example, as many of us know, the United Kingdom traveled overseas to many countries that were eventually colonized by the UK. Being said that, the United Kingdom was able to colonize a country, which allowed the language to spread across all the countries that were colonized by the UK. This was because the countries being colonized needed a way to communicate; therefore the dominant language that used to be spoken in that particular countries may have been ‘inherited’ common words from the English Language. Because of the English Language was becoming the most spoken language in the region (through colonisation , citizens who spoken other languages that were significant to the country, were limited to using that language; leading to the depletion of languages.