Dying languages, vanishing knowledge, diminishing diversity - and hope 
(Seminars)
7 June 2012
6pm
Venue: Lecture Theatre 220, Arts 1
Contact info: Jason Brown
Contact email: jason.brown@auckland.ac.nz
Department of Applied Language Studies and Linguistics seminar by Professor Kenneth L Rehg, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.
There are two intimately related crises confronting the world today. One is the erosion of linguistic and cultural diversity; the other is the loss of biological diversity. Small languages are dying at an alarming rate, taking with them much of the traditional knowledge that has accumulated over centuries. The biological diversity of the world, too, continues to diminish, in many cases for the same reasons and in the same places that languages and cultures are being extinguished. Nevertheless, while there many reasons to be pessimistic about our future, there are also grounds for hope. Concerned people everywhere are spontaneously organising environmental, indigenous rights, and social justice groups, all of which in the end serve to sustain our biocultural heritage. Perhaps we are, in the words of Jonas Salk, learning to be 'good ancestors.'
