Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Speaking in Tongues: The History of Language Episode # 5 Life and Death - preview

This is the final episode in the preview of the documentary. Just a reminder that you can purchase the DVD through this site.

Speaking in Tongues: The History of Language Episode # 5 Life and Death - preview. It is predicted that within a century more than half of the worlds languages will become extinct, but as languages are lost, new ones emerge naturally or are constructed. In this program, Noam Chomsky; Esperantist Thomas Eccard; endangered languages researcher Peter Ladefoged, who has since passed away; and others provide insights into the language life cycle. Topics include constructed languages such as Esperanto, language endangerment and preservation, and the role of globalization in language obsolescence. The experts also discuss current language trends and offer their opinions on which languages may emerge as front-runners of the future. (48 minutes) One part of a five part ground breaking documentary series
Produced by Syncopated Productions Inc.


1 comment:

Brian Barker said...

It's unfortunate that only a few people know that Esperanto has become a living language.

After a short period of 122 years Esperanto is now in the top 100 languages, out of 6,800 worldwide, according to the CIA factbook. It is the 22nd most used language in Wikipedia, and a language choice of Google, Skype, Firefox, Wordpress and Facebook.

Native Esperanto speakers,(people who have used the language from birth), include World Chess Champion Susan Polger, Ulrich Brandenberg the new German Ambassador to NATO and Nobel Laureate Daniel Bovet.

Further arguments can be seen at http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_YHALnLV9XU Professor Piron was a translator with the United Nations in Geneva.

A glimpse of Esperanto can be seen at http://www.lernu.net