Hello. This is 6 Minute English
from BBC Learning English.
I’m Neil.
And I’m Sam.
Last weekend I was driving from London to
Anglesey in Wales when
I saw a road sign written in two
languages. It said, ‘Welcome
to Wales’ in English, and below that,
it said ‘Croeso I Gymru’ in Welsh.
Yes, Welsh is spoken by many
people in north Wales. It’s the
indigenous language – the language
spoken by the people who originally
lived in a place, rather than by others
who moved there from
somewhere else.
Welsh is a good example of an
indigenous language that has survived.
Some children speak Welsh
in school and the local government
has encouraged its spread.
But not all indigenous languages
have been so lucky, as we’ll be finding
out in this programme.
Of course, languages are more
than just words – they carry
people’s history, culture, and identity. So,
when an indigenous language
disappears so too
does the culture.
Yes, the dominance of international
languages, including English,
has endangered other less-spoken
languages. So, here’s my
quiz question, Sam. Did you know
that nearly 7,000 different languages
are spoken around the world?
But how many of these are indigenous?
Is it: a) 3,000?
b) 4,000? or c) 5,000?
Hmmm, I’ll say b) 4,000 languages.
Ok, Sam, we’ll find out the answer
at the end of the programme.
One indigenous language speaker is
Mshkogaabwid Kwe. She’s from Canada,
or ‘Turtle Island’ as it’s called
by her tribe.
She grew up speaking English
instead of her native language,
Anishinaabemowin, which she
only learned later,
as an adult.
Listen to Mshkogaabwid speaking
with BBC World Service programme,
The Conversation, about how
she felt learning Anishinaabemowin
later in life.
When I realised that the sounds that
were coming out of my mouth were the
same sounds that had come out of my
ancestors’ mouths thousands of years
ago I felt a deep sense of who
I was and what it means to be
Anishinaabemowbec and it
made me realise that my
dream of learning this language
and passing it on to my
children was now accessible,
was now reachable, attainable.
And, you know, after a couple of
months, I was able to understand
one full prayer that was said
at a ceremony feast and the
glee in me and the feeling of
joy at being able to understand
something in my own language,
it was the most profound
sense of confidence.
Learning to speak the language
of her ancestors gave
Mshkogaabwid glee – a
feeling of happiness, pleasure, or
excitement.
Although she didn’t grow up speaking
Anishinaabemowin she now wants to
pass it on to her children. To pass
something on means to give it to
someone, usually in your family,
who lives on after you die.
Mshkogaabwid’s decision to
raise her children speaking
Anishinaabemowin turned out to
be the right one, as she explained
to BBC World Service programme,
The Conversation.
There are lots of bumps in the
road but it’s going very well.
My daughter is turning four and
she completely understands
the language. Being put back
into day care, which she’s
only been there maybe a month,
has really influences her
English… so I notice she’s
speaking a lot of English
and so that was a little bit
rough for the family being
an immersion home where we
only speak Anishinaabemowin
when in the home, for there
to be so much English, and
only recently, over the last
week and a half, have we
really noticed her switch
and her shift back into
using the language.
Bringing up her children to
speak her indigenous language
wasn’t easy and Mshkogaabwid
says there were some bumps in the road -
small problems or delays
that slowed down or
stopped things from developing.
To help, her family spoke only
Anishinaabemowin at home, using a
technique called immersion - the
process of learning a language
or skill by using only that
and nothing else.
This meant that Mshkogaabwid’s
children spoke both English - at school
and Anishinaabemowin - at home. She
noticed how they changed between
languages when speaking, something
known as code-switching.
Mshkogaabwid believes this not only
helps her children’s development but
also gives them a sense of family
history, as well as preserving her
traditional culture...
…a culture she hopes they
will pass on to their children in turn.
So while indigenous cultures are
threatened by big global languages,
there’s still hope that many
will survive into the future.
Which reminds me of your
quiz question, Neil.
Was my answer, right?
Ah yes, I asked Sam how many of the
7,000 languages spoken around the
world are indigenous.
And I thought it was b) 4,000 languages.
Which was the correct answer! And
what’s amazing is that although
indigenous peoples make up under 6%
of the global population, they speak
more than 4,000 of the world's
languages.
OK, Neil, let’s recap the vocabulary from
this programme on indigenous
languages – languages spoken by the
people who originally lived in a place
rather than others who came later.
Glee is a feeling of happiness
or excitement.
If you pass something on, you give it to
someone, usually in your family, who
lives on after you.
A bump in the road is asmall problem or
delay that slows things down.
Immersion is the process of learning
something, like a language or a skill, by
using only that and nothing else.
And finally, code-switching is the ability to
change between two or more languages
when speaking.
That’s all from us.
Bye for now!
Bye bye!