About Endangered Language Kairiru

Languages are a fascinating part of our lives, without languages our lives are like a garden without flowers and nobody likes that kind of garden, right? Well, scientists believe that languages are evolved out of hand gestures and grunts. Languages are have been born and died over time due to several reasons.

Over 7000 languages are spoken today in the world, one dies every 14 days. Languages have fate just in the case of Latin, it had a worse fate. The Latin language is spoken for centuries but today it has merely a native speaker of it left on the planet. This happens when people stop learning a language, so it becomes extinct.

People are shifting their languages to common languages, which is not something wrong. It’s good when you can express yourself across borders. However, when a language dies, it takes all of its philosophies along with it. Apart from that, the cultural aspect of that language also vanished. So don’t you think it’s a big deal for humanity to lose a language?

Well, in this article we will discuss one of the endangered languages, which is the Kairiru language, and all the important facts that might become the reason to save the language to become extinct in the future. Let’s have a look at it!

FACTS ABOUT ENDANGERED LANGUAGE KAIRIRU

Language Kairiru is one of the highly endangered languages of Papua New Guinea. It belongs to the Austronesian language family series. According to research carried out in 2000, there were 3,200 native speakers of the language left on the planet.

The language is mainly spoken on Mushu and Kairiru islands. Moreover people near the coastal village on the mainland between Cape Karawop and Cape Samein near Wewak in the East Sepik province of Papua New Guinea.

Well, Papua New Guinea is the most linguistically diverse country in the world. There are over 800 languages in the country out of which a lot are indigenous languages. These indigenous languages further have into two radical language groups; one is the Austronesian language group while the other is the non-Austronesian group.

The Kairiru language is a part of Austronesian languages. There are over 200 Austronesian languages in the country. Austronesian language speakers generally belong to the coastal region and offshore islands in the country. So, you can say that some of the Kairiru speakers are from the coastal region as well as shore islands.

WHAT DO WE LOSE WHEN A LANGUAGE DIES?

According to a prediction, 90% of the world’s languages will die out but the end of the century. This might not be as much important as it should be in our day-to-day life, but we lose a culture that is an incomparable loss for all of us. Let’s have a look at what we lose when a language dies.

THE EXPRESSION OF A UNIQUE VISION 

Every time a world loses a language, the expression of a unique vision of what it means to be human also disappears. A country with a large language count at least loses 6-7 major language families every year. Language loss can lead the world to cultural devastation.

Every language hides a lot of doors to wisdom and we can’t unlock these doors until we practice the considerations of that language. We can lose the knowledge of medical secrets, ecological wisdom, spiritual traditions, and more.

Languages have always been risen and fallen naturally throughout history as youth swift to the domain languages to survive better in the world. According to studies, the world is not just losing individual languages but also the family of languages.

DESCENDANT CULTURES

Losing a language is not about just losing the structural sentences, language descriptions, grammar, or vocabulary, it’s way more than that. The world is losing the memory of our planet’s cultures and histories, with every dying language.

The language tells a lot about one’s culture but when their language died, their distinct cultures lost their worth as well. That’s how cultural devastation occurs and destroys traditions and customs.

The reason why this happens is that people shift their living, their style of how to live, where to live and they adopt a new language according to their surroundings. When people switch to a new language, their generation stops practicing their native tongues, and once people have gone, there is no going back, which declares a language extinct. Everything culture, knowledge, or history along with language disappears.

BEST LOCAL RESOURCES 

In the last recent 500 years, human history is merely dying and the world’s dominant languages are expanding rapidly, overlapping the indigenous languages. According to previous studies, the indigenous languages and their speakers are rich sources of wisdom and knowledge. The coalescent time of mass extinction made their knowledge more precious.

Ancient languages unlock the knowledge of many genetic studies, medical wisdom, artistic and mythological histories. These traditional larger-scale studies of our ancestors left a lot of knowledge to survive in the world. But when we lose the language, the knowledge also disappears. We lose the best local recourses to tackle environmental threats. In addition, the world of medical sciences also loses the potential to cures. In short, we lose the recourses to survive the fragile ecosystem.

MOTHER TONGUE 

The real loss for some of the people is losing their mother tongue, their first language, the language they learned to describe themselves to the world. This is an unbearable loss. Some speakers of indigenous languages are at the edge of being the only speaker of their mother tongue. Can you imagine the trauma? Actually no we can’t. The loss of mother tongue is beyond all other losses.

WHAT TO DO TO PRESERVE AN ENDANGERED LANGUAGE KAIRIRU?

Today, language preservation is not an as easy task. The intergenerational gap makes language extinction very common. People are switching towards the dominant languages such as English, Spanish, or Mandarin to better interact with the world.

But in all these scenarios of making their lives better, people forgot about their native languages. They stop practicing those minority languages and shift their interest to the common languages.

Not every endangered language become extinct in the future; the country can take precautionary measures to preserve the language. There are several ways to preserve a language. The government of Papua New Guinea needs to takes some measures such as including the language courses and hiring linguists to teach the students a basic understanding of Kairiru languages.

So many languages in Papua New Guinea are in danger of disappearing, so linguists and translators need to learn as much as possible about the language. They need to reach the people of Karesau Island or else Austronesian village, to spend quality time with the Kairiru speakers and make videotapes, audiotapes, and written records of the language along with its translation. They can reach out to indigenous resources as well to have a better understanding of the language.

In addition, the government of PNG can also build a school in Austronesian-speaking villages and Kairiru Island to educate the children about the importance of the first language.

Wrap Up

Language extinction is at an alarming stage in New Guinea, government needs to take all the reliable measures immediately to make sure the prevention of endangered languages.