When another language dies, we lose a piece of our shared legacy, the ethnosphere. All people on Earth live in the ethnosphere, which is “a sum of total of all thoughts and dreams, myths, ideas, inspirations, intuitions brought into being by the human imagination since the dawn of consciousness” (Davis, 2003). Therefore, we are all shaped by this cultural diversity, including beliefs, traditions, and languages that differ from state to state and tribe to tribe. When the last person speaking an endangered language dies, this piece of humanity’s shared history dies with him; and our culturally diverse world becomes more monochromatic. That is true that when another unique tribe’s language is endangered, this is an issue not only for its speakers but for all humanity. Our responsibility is to preserve cultural diversity and let all of the ethnogroups being astonishingly inquisitive.
In order to save the existing ethnosphere and endangered languages, we have to realize that all cultures have a right to be unique and stop using power against them. I am sure that it is our worldview and perception of different that should be changed. As Wade Davis (2003) claims, “there are other ways of being, other ways of thinking, other ways of orienting yourself in the Earth”. So, language loss just proves the fact that the ethnosphere is dying. This happens not because of technological development but because of domination used by other people (Davis, 2003). For instance, many territories have already been deforested without paying attention that such places may be some culture’s or tribe’s homeland. Therefore, by stopping this power usage and destroying the ethno-diverse environment, people can save endangered cultures and dying languages.
Reference
Davis, W. (2003). Dreams From Endangered Cultures [Video file]. Web.