Commentary from an African and International Perspective

Abstract

Vernacular or Indigenous languages, be they in the Americas, Europe, Asia or Africa, are what Nettle and Romaine (2000: 69) call ‘verbal botanies’. They not only carry within them a wealth of knowledge about the local ecosystem, but they also act, as Crystal (2000) observes, as a repository of a polity’s history, traditions, arts and ideas. When a language is lost, much of the wealth of knowledge it embodies is also lost, a point that contributors to Grenoble and Whaley’s (1998) book, Endangered Languages: Language Loss and Community Response, also make in their discussion of the complexities of Australian Aboriginal, Native American and Alaska Native languages. Skutnabb-Kangas (2000), Crystal (1997), Dorian (2004) and others have expressed concern about the possibility of the disappearance of at least half of the world’s 6000 or so languages by the middle of this century. Most of these language deaths are likely to take place in post-colonial settings, where various factors, such as the lack of resources and of community and institutional support mitigate against Indigenous language maintenance. But how can society ensure that it preserves the Indigenous languages and the knowledge they embody for the benefit of both current and future generations? Can education through the medium of Indigenous languages, or mother-tongue education for that matter, be the answer?