SPEAKING WITH A SINGLE TONGUE

By Jared Diamond
Kpipi! Kpipi! In jungle on the Pacific island of Bougainville, a man from the
village of Rotokas was ecitedly !ointing out the most "eautiful "irdsong I had ever
heard# It consisted of silver$clear whistled tones and trills, grou!ed in slowly rising
!hrases of two or three notes, each !hrase different from the net# %he effect was like
one of &chu"ert's dece!tively sim!le songs# I never succeeded in glim!sing the
singer, nor have any of the other ornithologists who have su"se(uently visited
Bougainville and listened s!ell"ound to its song# )ll we know of the k*!i!i "ird is
that name for it in the Rotokas language and descri!tions of it "y Rotokas villagers#
)s I talked with my guide, I gradually reali+ed that the etraordinary music of
Bougainville's mountains included not only the k*!i!i's song "ut also the sounds of
the Rotokas language# ,y guide named one "ird after another- kpipi, kurupi,
vokupi, kopikau, kororo, keravo, kurue, vikuroi.# %he only consonant sounds in
those names are k, p, r, and v. /ater I learned that the Rotokas language has only si
consonant sounds, the fewest of any known language in the world# 0nglish, "y
com!arison, has 12, while other languages have 34 or more# &omehow the !eo!le of
Rotokas, living in a tro!ical rain forest on one of the highest mountains of the
southwest Pacific, have managed to "uild a rich voca"ulary and communicate clearly
while relying on fewer "asic sounds than any other !eo!le#
But the music of their language is now disa!!earing from Bougainville's
mountains, and from the world# %he Rotokas language is just one of 53 languages
s!oken on an island roughly three$(uarters the si+e of 6onnecticut# )t last count it
was s!oken "y only 2,714 !eo!le, and the num"er is declining# 8ith its vanishing, a
74,444$year history of human communication and cultural develo!ment is coming to
an end#
%hat vanishing eem!lifies a little$noticed tragedy looming over us- the !ossi"le
loss of 94 !ercent of our creative heritage, linked with the loss of 94 !ercent of our
languages# 8e hear much anguished discussion a"out the accelerating disa!!earance
of indigenous cultures as our 6oca$6ola civili+ation s!reads over the world# ,uch
less attention has "een !aid to the disa!!earance of languages themselves and to their
essential role in the survival of those indigenous cultures# 0ach language is the
vehicle for a uni(ue way of thinking, a uni(ue literature, and a uni(ue view of the
world# :nly now are linguists starting seriously to estimate the world's rate of
language loss and to de"ate what to do a"out it#
If the !resent rate of disa!!earance continues, our ;,444 modern languages could
"e reduced within a century or two to just a few hundred# %ime is running out even to
study the others# <ence linguists face a race against time similar to that faced "y
"iologists, now aware that many of the world's !lant and animal s!ecies are in
danger of etinction#
%o "egin to understand the !ro"lem, we should take a look at how the world's
languages are divvied u!# If the glo"al !o!ulation of a"out =#= "illion humans were
e(ually distri"uted among its ;,444 tongues, then each language would have roughly
944,444 s!eakers > enough to give each language a fair chance of survival# :f
course, the vast majority of !eo!le use only one of a few "ig languages, such as
Jared Diamond
,andarin 6hinese, 0nglish, or &!anish, each with hundreds of millions of native
s!eakers# %he vast majority of languages are little ones, with a median num"er of
!erha!s only =,444 s!eakers#
:ur ;,444 languages are also unevenly distri"uted over the glo"e# 8estern 0uro!e
is es!ecially !oorly endowed, with a"out 2= native languages# In 5?33, when
0uro!ean settlement of )ustralia "egan, a"original )ustralia was considera"ly
richer- it had 1=4 languages, des!ite having far fewer !eo!le than 8estern 0uro!e#
%he )mericas at the time of 6olum"us's arrival were richer yet- more than 5,444
languages# But the richest region of the glo"e, then and now, is @ew Auinea and
other Pacific islands, with only 3 million !eo!le, or less than #1 !ercent of the
world's !o!ulation, "ut a"out 5,244 languages, or almost 1= !ercent of the world's
totalB 8hile @ew Auinea itself stands out with a"out 5,444 of those languages, other
neigh"oring archi!elagoes are also well endowed > Canuatu, for eam!le, with a"out
54=, and the Phili!!ines with 5;4#
,any @ew Auinea languages are so distinctive that they have no !roven
relationshi! with any other language in the world, not even with any other @ew
Auinea language# )s I travel across @ew Auinea, every 54 or 14 miles I !ass
"etween tri"es with languages as different as 0nglish is from 6hinese# )nd most of
those languages are tiny ones, with fewer than 5,444 s!eakers#
<ow did these enormous geogra!hic differences in linguistic diversity ariseD
Partly, of course, from differences in to!ogra!hy and human !o!ulation density# But
there's another reason as well- the original linguistic diversity of many areas has
"een homogeni+ed "y e!ansions of !olitical states in the last several thousand years,
and "y e!ansions of farmers in the last 54,444 years# @ew Auinea, Canuatu, the
Phili!!ines, and a"original )ustralia were ece!tional in never having "een unified
"y a native em!ire# %o us, the British and &!anish em!ires may "e the most familiar
eam!les of centrali+ed states that im!osed their state language on con(uered
!eo!les# <owever, the Inca and )+tec em!ires similarly im!osed Euechua and
@ahuatl on their Indian su"jects "efore )#D# 5=44# /ong "efore the rise of !olitical
states, e!ansions of farmers must have wi!ed out thousands of hunter$gatherer
languages# For instance, the e!ansion of Indo$0uro!ean farmers and herders that
"egan around 2444 B#6# eradicated all !reeisting 8estern 0uro!ean languages
ece!t Bas(ue#
I'd guess that "efore e!ansions of farmers "egan in earnest around ;444 B#6# the
world har"ored tens of thousands of languages# If so, then we may already have lost
much of the world's linguistic diversity# :f those vanished languages, a few > such
as 0truscan, <ittite, and &umerian > lingered long enough to "e written down and
!reserved for us# Far more languages, though, have vanished without a trace# 8ho
knows what the s!eech of the <uns and the Picts, and of uncounted nameless
!eo!les, sounded likeD
)s linguists have "egun surveying the status of our surviving languages, it has
"ecome clear that !rognoses for future survival vary enormously# <ere are some
calculations made "y linguist ,ichael Grauss of the Hniversity of )laska at
Fair"anks# Presuma"ly among the languages with the most secure futures are the
official national languages of the world's sovereign states, which now num"er 5?4 or
so# <owever, most states have officially ado!ted 0nglish, French, &!anish, )ra"ic, or
Portuguese, leaving only a"out ?4 states to o!t for other languages# 0ven if one
counts regional languages, such as the 5= s!ecified in India's constitution, that yields
at "est a few hundred languages officially !rotected anywhere in the world#
)lternatively, one might consider languages with over a million s!eakers as secure,
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Speaking with a Single Tongue
regardless of their official status, "ut that definition also yields only 144 or so secure
languages, many of which du!licate the list of official languages# 8hat's ha!!ening
to the other =,344 of the world's ;,444D
)s an illustration of their fates, consider )laska's 14 native 0skimo and Indian
languages# %he 0yak language, formerly s!oken "y a few hundred Indians on
)laska's south coast, had declined "y 5931 to two native s!eakers, ,arie &mith Iage
?1J and her sister &o!hie Borodkin# %heir children s!eak only 0nglish# 8ith &o!hie
Borodkin's death last year at the age of 34, the language world of the 0yak !eo!le
reached its final silence > ece!t when ,arie &mith s!eaks 0yak with ,ichael
Grauss# &eventeen other native )laskan languages are mori"und, in that not a single
child is learning them# )lthough they are still "eing s!oken "y older !eo!le, they too
will meet the fate of 0yak when the last of those s!eakers diesK in addition, almost all
of them have fewer than 5,444 s!eakers each# %hat leaves only two native )laskan
languages still "eing learned "y children and thus not yet doomed- &i"erian Lu!ik,
with 5,444 s!eakers, and 6entral Lu!ik, with a grand total of 54,444 s!eakers#
%he situation is similar for the 53? Indian languages surviving in @orth )merica
outside )laska, such as 6hickasaw, @avajo, and @ootka# Grauss estimates that 529
of these are already mori"und# 0ven @avajo, the language with "y far the largest
num"er of s!eakers Iaround 544,444J, has a dou"tful future, as many or most @avajo
children now s!eak only 0nglish# /anguage etinction is even further advanced in
a"original )ustralia, where only 544 of the original 1=4 languages are still s!oken or
even remem"ered, and only ? have more than 5,444 s!eakers# )t "est, only 1 or 7 of
those a"original languages will retain their vitality throughout our lifetime#
In monogra!hs summari+ing the current status of languages, one encounters the
same ty!es of !hrase monotonously re!eated# H"ykh Ma language of the northwest
6aucasusN . one s!eaker definitely still alive, !erha!s two or three more# Cilela
Msole surviving language of a grou! of Indian languages in )rgentinaN . s!oken "y
only two individuals# %he last s!eaker of 6u!eOo Man Indian language of southern
6aliforniaN, Roscinda @olas(ue+ of Pala, 6alifornia, died in 593? at the age of 92#
Putting these status re!orts together, it a!!ears that u! to half of the world's
surviving languages are no longer "eing learned "y children# By some time in the
coming century, Grauss estimates, all "ut !erha!s a few hundred languages could "e
dead or mori"und#
8hy is the rate of language disa!!earance accelerating so stee!ly now, when so
many languages used to "e a"le to !ersist with only a few hundred s!eakers in !laces
like traditional @ew AuineaD 8hy do declining languages include not only small
ones "ut also ones with many s!eakers, including Breton Iaround 544,444J and even
Euechua I3#= millionJD Just as there are different ways of killing !eo!le > "y a (uick
"low to the head, slow strangulation, or !rolonged neglect > so too are there different
ways of eradicating a language#
%he most direct way, of course, is to kill almost all its s!eakers# %his was how
white 6alifornians eliminated the Lahi Indian language "etween 53=7 and 53?4, and
how British colonists eliminated all the native languages of %asmania "etween 5347
and 537=# )nother direct way is for governments to for"id and !unish use of
minority languages# If you wondered why 529 out of 53? @orth )merican Indian
languages are now mori"und, just consider the !olicy !racticed until recently "y the
H#&# government regarding those languages# For several centuries we insisted that
Indians could "e civili+ed and taught 0nglish only "y removing children from the
"ar"arous atmos!here of their !arents' homes to 0nglish$language$only "oarding
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Jared Diamond
schools, where use of Indian languages was a"solutely for"idden and !unished with
!hysical a"use and humiliation#
But in most cases language loss !roceeds "y the more insidious !rocess now
underway at Rotokas# 8ith !olitical unification of an area formerly occu!ied "y
sedentary warring tri"es comes !eace, mo"ility, intermarriage, and schools# ,ied
cou!les may have no common language ece!t the majority language Ifor eam!le,
0nglish or Pidgin 0nglish in Pa!ua @ew Auinea, the nation to which Bougainville
"elongsJ# Loung !eo!le in search of economic o!!ortunity a"andon their native$
s!eaking villages and move to mied ur"an centers, where again they have no o!tion
ece!t to s!eak the majority language# %heir children's schools s!eak the majority
language# 0ven their !arents remaining in the village learn the majority language for
its access to !restige, trade, and !ower# @ews!a!ers, radio, and %C overwhelmingly
use majority languages understood "y most consumers, advertisers, and su"scri"ers#
IIn the Hnited &tates, the only native languages regularly "roadcast are @avajo and
Lu!ik#J
%he usual result is that minority young adults tend to "ecome "ilingual, then their
children "ecome monolingual in the majority language# 0ventually the minority
language is s!oken only "y older !eo!le, until the last of them dies# /ong "efore that
end is reached, the minority language has degenerated through loss of its
grammatical com!leities, loss of forgotten native words, and incor!oration of
foreign voca"ulary and grammatical features#
%hose are the overwhelming facts of worldwide language etinction# But now let's
!lay devil's advocate and ask, &o whatD )re we really so sure this loss is a terri"le
thingD Isn't the eistence of thousands of languages !ositively harmful, first "ecause
they im!ede communication, and second "ecause they !romote strifeD Perha!s we
should actually encourage language loss#
%he devil's first o"jection is that we need a common language to understand each
other, to conduct commerce, and to get along in !eace# Perha!s it's no accident that
the countries most advanced technologically are ones with few languages# ,ulti!le
languages are just an im!ediment to communication and !rogress > at least that's
how the devil would argue#
%o which I answer- :f course different !eo!le need some common language to
understand each otherB But that doesn't re(uire eliminating minority languagesK it
only re(uires "ilingualism# 8e )mericans forget how ece!tional our
monolingualism is "y world standards# Peo!le elsewhere routinely learn two or more
languages as children, with little effort# For eam!le, Denmark is one of the
wealthiest and most contented nations in the world# Danes have no !ro"lem doing
"usiness !rofita"ly with other countries, even though !ractically no one ece!t the =
million Danes s!eaks Danish# %hat's "ecause almost all Danes also s!eak 0nglish,
and many s!eak other foreign languages as well# &till, Danes have no thought of
a"andoning their tongue# %he Danish language, com"ined with !olylingualism,
remains indis!ensa"le to Danes "eing ha!!ily Danish#
Perha!s you're thinking now, )ll right, so communication doesn't a"solutely
re(uire us all to have a single language# &till, though, "ilingualism is a !ain in the
neck that you yourself would rather "e s!ared#
But remem"er that "ilingualism is !racticed es!ecially "y minority language
s!eakers, who learn majority languages# If they choose to do that etra work, that's
their "usinessK monolingual s!eakers of majority languages have no right or need to
!revent them# ,inorities struggling to !reserve their language ask only for the
freedom to decide for themselves > without "eing ecluded, humiliated, !unished, or
4
Speaking with a Single Tongue
killed for eercising that freedom# Inuits I0skimosJ aren't asking H#&# whites to learn
InuitK they're just asking that Inuit schoolchildren "e !ermitted to learn Inuit along
with 0nglish#
%he devil's second o"jection is that multi!le languages !romote strife "y
encouraging !eo!le to view other !eo!les as different# %he civil wars tearing a!art so
many countries today are determined "y linguistic lines# 8hatever the value of
multi!le languages, getting rid of them may "e the !rice we have to !ay if we're to
halt the killing around the glo"e# 8ouldn't the world "e a much more !eaceful !lace
if the Gurds would just agree to s!eak )ra"ic or %urkish, if &ri /anka's %amils
would consent to s!eak &inhalese, and if the )rmenians would switch to )+er"aijani
Ior vice versaJD
%hat seems like a very strong argument# But !ause and consider- language
differences aren't the sole cause, or even the most im!ortant cause, of strife#
Prejudiced !eo!le will sei+e on any difference to dislike others, including differences
of religion, !olitics, ethnicity, and dress# :ne of the world's most vicious civil wars
today, that in the land that once was Lugoslavia, !its !eo!les unified "y language "ut
divided "y religion and ethnicity- :rthodo &er"s against 6atholic 6roats and
,uslim Bosnians, all s!eaking &er"o$6roatian# %he "loodiest genocide of history
was that carried out under &talin, when Russians killed mostly other Russians over
su!!osed !olitical differences# In the world's "loodiest genocide since 8orld 8ar II,
Ghmer$s!eaking 6am"odians under Pol Pot killed millions of other Ghmer$s!eaking
6am"odians#
If you "elieve that minorities should give u! their languages in order to !romote
!eace, ask yourself whether you "elieve that minorities should also !romote !eace "y
giving u! their religions, their ethnicities, their !olitical views# If you "elieve that
freedom of religion "ut not of language is an inaliena"le human right, how would
you e!lain your inconsistency to a Gurd or an InuitD Innumera"le eam!les "esides
those of &talin and Pol Pot warn us that monolingualism is no safeguard of !eace#
0ven if the su!!ression of differences of language, religion, and ethnicity did
!romote !eace Iwhich I dou"tJ, it would eact a huge !rice in human suffering#
Aiven that !eo!le do differ in language, religion, and ethnicity, the only alternative
to tyranny or genocide is for !eo!le to learn to live together in mutual res!ect and
tolerance# %hat's not at all an idle ho!e# Des!ite all the !ast wars over religion,
!eo!le of different religions do coeist !eacefully in the Hnited &tates, Indonesia,
and many other countries# &imilarly, many countries that !ractice linguistic tolerance
find that they can accommodate !eo!le of different languages in harmony- for
eam!le, three languages in Finland IFinnish, &wedish, and /a!!J, four in
&wit+erland IAerman, French, Italian, and RomanshJ, and nearly a thousand in Pa!ua
@ew Auinea#
)ll right, so there's nothing inevita"ly harmful a"out minority languages, ece!t
the nuisance of "ilingualism for the minority s!eakers# 8hat are the !ositive
advantages of linguistic diversity, to justify that minor nuisanceD
:ne answer is that languages are the most com!le !roducts of the human mind,
each differing enormously in its sounds, structure, and !attern of thought# But a
language itself isn't the only thing lost when a language goes etinct# 0ach language
is indissolu"ly tied u! with a uni(ue culture, literature Iwhether written or notJ, and
worldview, all of which also re!resent the end !oint of thousands of years of human
inventiveness# /ose the language and you lose much of that as well# %hus the
eradication of most of the world's accumulation of languages would "e an
overwhelming tragedy, just as would "e the destruction of most of the world's
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Jared Diamond
accumulated art or literature# 8e 0nglish$s!eakers would regard the loss of
&hakes!eare's language and culture as a loss to humanityK Rotokas villagers feel a
similar "ond to their own language and culture# 8e are !utting millions of dollars
into the effort to save one of the world's 3,;44 "ird s!ecies, the 6alifornia condor#
8hy do we care so little a"out most of the world's ;,444 languages, or even desire
their disa!!earanceD 8hat makes condors more wonderful than the 0yak languageD
) second answer addresses two often$e!ressed attitudes- :ne language is really
as good as another, or conversely, 0nglish is much "etter than any of those
fiendishly com!licated Indian languages# In reality, languages aren't e(uivalent or
interchangea"le, and there's no all$!ur!ose "est language# Instead, as everyone
fluent in more than one language knows, different languages have different
advantages, such that it's easier to discuss or think a"out certain things, or to think
and feel in certain ways, in one language than another# /anguage loss doesn't only
curtail the freedom of minorities, it also curtails the o!tions of majorities#
@ow !erha!s you're thinking, 0nough of all this vague talk a"out linguistic
freedom, uni(ue cultural inheritance, and different o!tions for thinking and
e!ressing# %hose are luuries that rate low !riority amid the crises of the modern
world# Hntil we solve the world's des!erate socioeconomic !ro"lems, we can't waste
our time on "agatelles like o"scure Indian languages#
But think again a"out the socioeconomic !ro"lems of the !eo!le s!eaking all those
o"scure Indian languages Iand thousands of other o"scure languages around the
worldJ# %heir !ro"lems aren't just narrow ones of jo"s and jo" skills, "ut "road ones
of cultural disintegration# %hey've "een told for so long that their language and
everything else a"out their culture are worthless that they "elieve it# %he costs to our
government, in the form of welfare "enefits and health care, are enormous# )t the
same time, other im!overished grou!s with strong intact cultures > like some recent
grou!s of immigrants > are already managing to contri"ute to society rather than take
from it#
Programs to reverse Indian cultural disintegration would "e far "etter than welfare
!rograms, for Indian minorities and for majority ta!ayers alike# &imilarly, those
foreign countries now wracked "y civil wars along linguistic lines would have found
it chea!er to emulate countries "ased on !artnershi!s "etween !roud intact grou!s
than to seek to crush minority languages and cultures#
%hose seem to me com!elling cultural and !ractical "enefits of sustaining our
inherited linguistic diversity# But if you're still unconvinced, let me instead try to
!ersuade you of another !ro!osition- that we should at least record as much
information as !ossi"le a"out each endangered language, lest all knowledge of it "e
lost# For hundreds, !erha!s thousands, of the world's ;,444 languages, we have
either no written information at all, or just "rief word lists# If many of those
languages do indeed vanish, at least we'd have !reserved as much knowledge as
!ossi"le from irreversi"le loss#
8hat is the value of such knowledgeD )s one eam!le, consider that relationshi!s
of the languages that survive today serve to trace the history of human develo!ment
and migrations, just as relationshi!s of eisting animal and !lant s!ecies trace the
history of "iological evolution# )ll linguists agree, for instance, that we can trace
eisting Indo$0uro!ean languages "ack to an ancestral Proto$Indo$0uro!ean
language s!oken somewhere in 0uro!e or western )sia around ;,444 years ago# @ow
some linguists are trying to trace languages and !eo!les "ack much further in time,
!ossi"ly even "ack to the origin of all human language# ,any tiny modern
languages, the ones now most at risk of vanishing unrecorded, have !roved
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Speaking with a Single Tongue
dis!ro!ortionately im!ortant in answering that (uestion that never fails to interest
each of us- 8here did I come fromD
/ithuanian, for eam!le, is an Indo$0uro!ean language with only 7 million
s!eakers, and until recently it struggled against Russian for survival# It's dwarfed "y
the com"ined total of 1 "illion s!eakers of the a!!roimately 524 other Indo$
0uro!ean languages# Let /ithuanian has !roved es!ecially im!ortant in
understanding Indo$0uro!ean language origins "ecause in some res!ects it has
changed the least and !reserved many archaic features over the !ast several thousand
years#
:f course, dictionaries and grammars of /ithuanian are readily availa"le# If the
/ithuanian language were to go etinct, at least we'd already know enough a"out it
to use it in reconstructing Indo$0uro!ean language origins# But other e(ually
im!ortant languages are at risk of vanishing with much less information a"out them
recorded# 8hy should anyone care whether four tiny languages, Ganakana"u,
&aaroa, Rukai, and %sou, s!oken "y 55,444 a"origines in the mountains of %aiwan,
surviveD :ther )sians may eventually come to care a lot, "ecause these languages
may constitute one of the four main "ranches of the giant )ustronesian language
family# %hat family, consisting of some 5,444 languages with a total of 144 million
s!eakers, includes Indonesian and %agalog, two of )sia's most im!ortant languages
today# /ose those four tiny a"original languages and these numerous )sian !eo!les
may lose one$(uarter of the linguistic data "ase for reconstructing their own history#
If you now at last agree that linguistic diversity isn't evil, and might even "e
interesting and good, what can you do a"out the !resent situationD )re we hel!less in
the face of the seemingly overwhelming forces tending to eradicate all "ut a few "ig
languages from the modern worldD
@o, we're not hel!less# First, !rofessional linguists themselves could do a lot more
than most of them are now doing# ,ost !lace little value on the study of vanishing
languages# :nly recently have a few linguists, such as ,ichael Grauss, called our
attention to our im!ending loss# )t minimum, society needs to train more linguists
and offer incentives to those studying the languages most at risk of disa!!earing#
)s for the rest of us, we can do something individually, "y fostering sym!athetic
awareness of the !ro"lem and "y hel!ing our children "ecome "ilingual in any
second language that we choose# %hrough government, we can also su!!ort the use
of native languages# %he 5994 @ative )merican /anguages )ct actually encourage
the use of those languages# )nd at least as a start, &enate Bill 1422, signed "y former
President Bush last :cto"er, allocates a small amount of money > P1 million a year >
for @ative )merican language studies# %here's also a lot that minority s!eakers
themselves can do to !romote their languages, as the 8elsh, @ew Qealand ,aori,
and other grou!s have "een doing with some success#
But these minority efforts will "e in vain if strongly o!!osed "y the majority, as
has ha!!ened all too often# &hould some of us 0nglish$s!eakers not choose actively
to !romote @ative )merican languages, we can at least remain neutral and avoid
crushing them# :ur grounds for doing so are ultimately selfish- to !ass on a rich,
rather than a drastically im!overished, world to our children#
&ource- Discover ,aga+ine, Fe"ruary 5997#
Microsoft Encarta 2006. !!"#200$ Microsoft %or&oration. A'' ri()ts
r*s*r+*,.
! ?