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The Only Speaker of his Tongue by David Malouf

David Malouf's "The Only Speaker of his Tongue" illustrates perfectly the direct importance of preservation of languages and the responsibility that one may hold to preserving such a thing. Beautiful in its captivating imagery, the statement that resonated with me would be, "The first landscape here is dead. It dies in this mans eyes as his tongue licks the edge of the horizon, before it has quite dried up in his mouth. There is a new one that others are making."

Although not explicit, Malouf captured my attention to this statement, shouting numerous answers. One being which that the landscape he refers to might be his land or culture and how it is dying, or being torn apart. The second being, that the language in fact is what does in the mans eyes, as he sees throughout history and his lifetime its rarity and how it has been almost completely abolished. Malouf also says that his tongue of which speaks the language is trying to grasp for more people to say at as if he is struggling to get nourishment from the food he had already finished. It then "dries up in his mouth" as in slowly being removed and eventually instinct for decades. HE also uses others as if the people that we now conform to are doing something negative by taking their language, as if power of the people has been completely destroyed.

I can admit that I am not a victim of endangered languages and I am quite proud to regard myself as a fluent person in english. Although this may seem to be very arrogant, because this is my only language I can consider myself to be part of a community rather than to conform as many have did in the last generations. A beautiful excerpt that hides the reality of the past,present and future, Malouf brilliantly illustrates the dying languages and how society feels the need to conform to the international language that is today, English.

Power and Resistance - Value of Preserving Indigenous Languages

3. What is the value of preserving indigenous languages?

As  a common New Yorker once said, "the loss of languages passed down for millennia, along with their unique arts and cosmologies, may have consequences that won’t be understood until it is too late to reverse them.” Meaning that if we do not prevent the loss of ancient and indigenous langauges(as well as its culture and arts) the consequences could be severe and we may not know this until we see them. 

Personally, I think that the value of indigenous languages should be taken more seriously from the general population of which speak english. For example, I am from South Africa, but i can only speak english fluently and it is my identity and part of my upbringing. What many seem to dismiss is that many people are not exposed to english as often and in turn feel strongly about preserving their language. This indigenous language is important to people's identity and fully completes a culture. Although we might not recognize it, many of these indigenous languages have much reason to them and explore many things we don't know in the world today. Most often than not, we find the discoveries and inventions through languages that are now a staple such as Arabic,Hindi etc. Without knowing the power these languages contain, we can't simply just cut them off from reality.  On a more sensitive side, art and culture could open a number of possibilties to creators(artists,musicians,performers) that can further express a beauty of a culture. 

Keeping cultural diversity is an important factor.Now a language is not just a body of vocabulary or a set of grammatical rules, it’s a flash of the human spirit. It’s a vehicle for which the soul of a culture comes through to the material world. Every language in some sense is an ecosystem of ideas, a watershed of thought, an old growth forest of the mind. Its  a way of saying,expressing,thinking and feeling.As a crucial building block of culture, we can use ideas and creations to unlock the door for new and better values. We can model this and simply live in a more harmonious world and enjoy better lives.

Every language is important, and if you don't see that, you need to be more open minded.