Back to Babel

 Hi,

This post will be based on the article “Back to Babel”, by James Geary which has been published in the Times magazine in 1997, informing us about the “alarming rate” at which languages all around the world are becoming extinct.

 What can be observed immediately in this article is the choice of words and imagery used to open the eyes of the readers in what regards the situation of languages such as Tlingit, Nentsi language and Maori. Firstly, the author associates the extinction of languages with a modern tower of Babel, having a powerful effect on the audience. The reason would be that in the myth of the tower of Babel one massive change takes place in what regards the unique language spoken which has been “shattered” into many different ones. Although the modern situation is presented as the reverse process, a big variety of languages decreasing considerably in number, converging towards one universal language, the effect on the audience is that it brings the idea of a colossal experience that could affect all of us since changing one's language could chance his or her way of life.

The author compares language to living organisms, saying that “Any language is as divine and endless a mystery as a living organism” with the aim of highlighting the continuous change of language as the effect of historical and social facts and events. Moreover, some languages in the text are presented as predator languages such as English which is described as a “vacuum cleaner of language”, taking words from almost every other encountered language. By doing so, the author could make people think more about the effect that a disappeared language can have. The extinction of a language is similar to the extinction of a species which could affect the entire ecosystem, as mentioned as well in the article by the quote “pinning a dead butterfly on a board- you’ve interrupted the chain of life“. Since English language is using other languages in order to develop, their extinction could mean that at least one valuable source of words will vanish and one of the ‘roads’ to development would be blocked forever. Next, by using the structure “endless mystery”, the author is probably aiming not only to make people understand how vast and intriguing the domain of language is but also show how the extinction of one language, exactly as the extinction of a living organism such as a “panda or the Californian condor”, could mean limiting our ability of understanding the world around us. By using the word “divine” the author might be trying to increase the value of language in the eyes of the readers, presenting it as a marvellous element of each and every culture or maybe presenting language as a gift of divinity.