Liaise) Back to the future David Crystal looks at the past, present and future of languages in the Centenary Threlford Memorial Lecture ‘Anniversaries are stimuli for reflection, They rake us acknowledge the achievements of the past, evaluate the progress of the present, ‘and motivate our planning forthe future. With a centennial the tasks harder, as century-old ‘memories ae inevitably fragmentary, and centuysforward speculations, seriously Lunwse. But even fragments can be informative and speculations suggestive. Se: 1910-2010-2110. 1910 What was the world of language like 2 century ago? Academically the situation fs wellknown. was a world intellectually dominated by Indo-European philology and prescriptive language teaching. In 1910, Joseph Wight published his Grammar of the Gothic Language, one of dozens of such works from the period providing meticulous etal on the Indo-European languages of the past, In historical lexicograpy, the Oxford English Dictionary, whose firs fasccle had bbeen published in 1884, had reached letter R. And the demand for usage guidance was widespread. The second edition of Fowler's The King’s English was selling like hot cakes, wth a thie repxintng in only two years But times were changing, Modern linguistics was on the horizon In 1910, Franz Boas published Chinook: An tivstrative ‘Sketch and Edward Sapir published Yana Texts, showing the new interest in modern languages outside the Indo-European family Ferdinand de Saussure presented his thie course of lectures on general linguistics — part ofa series, pubshed in 1916, after his death, that laid the foundations of the modem subject 10 “Itis almost impossible to teach English well unless another language is studied with it” Cracks were beginning to appear in the prescriptive tradition that had govemed language-teaching in school fr 150 years Teachers were uneasy feeling the need 10 justify their language teaching methods, bot in foreign language teaching and in the teaching of English, Repons being made to the Board of Education were increasingly critical ofthe ime being wasted on what was perceived to be an outmoded and relevant English grammar ‘The Regulations for Secondary Schools (1904.05) requited the curiulum to offer at least a four-year course including "English Language and Literature" and “At least one The Linguist DECEMBER 2010/JANUARY 2011 Language other than English”. In the minds ‘of many peopl, the two were linked. The historical view in the Hadow Report! of 1923 includes the opinions ofthe two famous gittschool reformers, Miss Beale anc Miss Buss. Here is Miss Buss, in 1868: "is almost impossible to teach English wel unless another language is studied with it, and that other language should be Latin or French or German.” In 1910, we are therefore talking about » ‘generation — men and women alike ~ for which a modern-language awareness as part of the climate. it can be seen in journals suchas Punch, where the articles, headings and cartoon captions assume a (sometimes shaky) knowledge of French and Latin It is that sense of foreign languages being taken {or granted, asa routine feature of educated Ie, thats the main point of contrast between 1910 and today. tis the restoration ofthis language awareness that should be ‘our main goal. How isto be achieved? Perhaps the intemet can help. 2010 ‘The internet has already played a major role in fostering language presence. It offers a home to alllanguages ~ 28 soon as their communities have an electricity supply and a functioning computer technology. tis no longer possible to ignore languages on the intemet; we only have to click onthe flag. ts increasingly multilingual character has been the most notable change since its beginnings asa totally English medium. Intemet statistics must be treated cautiously, as much depends on what exactly Isbeing counted (user profies, user activity, websites, web pages, host servers’). Most www. iol.org.ukestimates of intemet language presence ae based on counting web pages, but there are several difculties. Search engines vary ‘enormously and can yield very different results. A recent search for lab Google resulted in 156 millon hits, whereas (on Alta Vista the total was 56 million, Such totals ae, in ary case, approximate because they conflate pages from diferent times, rely on sources of data from diferent times, and contain an unknown number of duplicated pages, Iris necessary to bear these cautions in mind when looking at statements about the way languages are used onthe internet. A typical illustration isthe chart ofthe top ten internet languages a the beginning of 2010 (ight, which measures usage in terms of te ire using numberof users. English continues to hold the leading poston, buts key to be soon replaced by Chinese, a language that has been increasing its internet presence more than four times more quickly than English during the frst decade ofthe milena. The demand for diversity s certainly ther, Ail else being equal, people ike to read, vite ten and speak on the intemet in their frst language. As early as 2001, surveys, such 25 those provided by the interactive Data Corporation, were reporting significant intomet preferences for own-language use: e2p £84 percent in Japan, 85 percent in China nt in France, 79 percent in Germany, These figures remain robust because they reflect proferences not abilties. Customers ete said to be four tines more likely to buy if appreached in their own language. And the {economic argument for internet rmutingualism was repeatedly made in subsequent years Vol/49 No/é 2010 However, the critical phrase is “all else ‘boing equal”. When we examine the internet tocestablsh the range and quality of content, we find huge dsparties across languages. Languages are patent not equal. The internet is dominated by @ small number of languages ~ the top ten occupy more than 80 percent of nteret space. Nobody has yet worked out how many languages have a presence on the intemet ‘or how much contents associated with them. Butt is clear thatthe amount of dat 's often quite small and specialised, with litle mote than a symbolic role, The intemet wil ‘ne day represent the distribution of language presence in the world, but it is ‘currently a long way from that ideal, For a ‘multilingual internet to grow, there has to be policy agreement and technological implementation, and such things take time to put in place. aay CELEBRATIONS (Children in UK schools mark ‘the European Day of “Languages in September ‘Ata policy level there have been several statements and resolutions afiming the desirability of muliingualintemet 3 The fst major step was in 2008, curing the 32nd session of UNESCO's General Conference Thats the meeting where UNESCO adopted the corwention on the preservation ofthe word imangibe heritage fneluing endangered languages) At the same meeting it also made a set of recommendations ‘conceming the prometion and use of ‘multilingualism and access to cyberspace. However it took some tine before ‘pberpalicy began to be translated into cyber realty crcl stop was the enabling of non Latin writing systems to be used in domain names. As early 28 2003, a mechanism was defined for handling names containing nan- ASCII characters: Intemationaling Domain Names in Applications. Tests began on implementing the system, but it tock fve years Top 10 internet languages 2010 Languages % of internet Internet users users (io milions) English 275 496, Chinese 226 408 Spanish 7.8 140 Japanese 5.3, 96 Portuguese 4.3 7B German 40 R Arabic 33 60 French 3.2 7 Russian 2.5 4s Korean 21 7 Others 17.4 314 World total 100 4,802 DECEMBER 2010/JANUARY 2011 The Linguist Internet 6 Internet language penetration growth (2000.9) 39.4 252 297 1,162 340 669 755 108 314 924 750 161 178 2,298 169 375 323 1,360 527, 7 133 516 268 399 "before it was finaly approved, and it was ony in 200? thatthe internet Corporation fe ‘Assigned Names and Numbers (CANN) ~ the organisation that since 1998, has cootdnated the internets naming sytem ~ announced the creation of county code op- level domains. Several countries immediately applied, wih Arabic, Russian and Chinese implomentations invaded in mic 2010 Until quite recently there were ral ppoblemsin using the characters ofthe keyboard to cope with the orthographic ivory ofthe words inguages. Because the English alphabet was the standard, ony a few non Englth accents and dcr could be handled. fa foreign word had some stange-lookng scant mars, the irtemet software woul simpy ignee them and assume they weren't important. The Unicode Consortium was formed in 1991 with the aim of providing univers) Itis the sense of foreign languages being taken for granted that is the main point of contrast between 1910 and 2010 character encoding platform. The fst version was released in June 1993, and by ‘October 2009 it had resched version 5.2, which supports 90 seripts and 107,156 linguistic symbols, along with a range of ‘other graphs, such as punctuation marks ‘and numeral. The interetis increasing virual language ‘ewareness, but hows this awareness to be focused in non vital reality? What can be done to keep linguistic divest, ‘multilingualism, language leaning and ‘elated matters in the public eye? Ths, to my ‘mind, is the main challenge forthe futur. 2110 | i actully thin thatthe future had begun ‘back in 2008, which was designated by UNESCO asthe intemational Year for Languages. But two years on, how many people remember that? The year has gone the same way a all other years. The situation 's complicated by the fact that for each chronological year there isnot one but several UN years. In 2008, our Languages Year was in competition with the Intemtiona 12 Year of Sanitation, the Reef, Planet Earth, and the Potato. It was competion. Human beings are able totake in ony so much information, and are wiling and able to devote attention, time ‘and money to only a tiny numberof the loudable projects that are placed before them. So why should they pay attention to language, especially when there is a much ‘more obvious and pressing cause to attend to: planet Earth? Its this theme that grabbed ‘most media attention in 2008, How are we to get people to pay attention to language? What inatves would make a permanent impact on the consciousness of the human race asa whole, so that it would never forget the important role languages play in its wellbeing? Tiss the cstical aim. Urimately, most things linguists do are dependent on public approval. Somebody has to pay for documentation, etalon, trandaton, maintaining diversity: organisations or individuals (philanthropists, policy-makers, political purse-holder) who need to be persuaded that their investments worthwhile. But puble approval presupposes public tention, So how are we to gain? I note four main ways, initaly introduced in relation to endangered languages at a UNESCO conference,4 then generated to all nguages in telaton to the Intemational YearS Each intitive could make a significant diference in {ostering a fresh language awareness. 1 Celebratory days: Reigions have festivals, counties have national dos, faies have days fr mothers, "PUNCH’ CAPTION english lady (coming to the rescue ofher ‘countryman who has entered a Paris shop on ‘the strength ofthe notice “English spoken here but ean get nothing out ofthe Attendant “Qu pow pur avout?” Attendant “Mass, ‘Mana, tes Acrneises aNcLarses” Punch cartoon, 2 March 1910 The Linguist OECEMBER 2010/JANUARY 2011 ‘fathers and more. There is Halloween, Shakespeare's Bithday, Basile Day Linguists have done the same. There is World Languages Day and Intemational Mother Language Day But establishing 2 day isnot enough. We have to ask how do we celebrate it And how do others celebrate their days? [With parades, deplays, ckessng up, badges, cards, presents. This is something which, at an Intemational level, nguists do not do. 11am not suggesting CIOL meetings should take place in fancy dress. But there are other ways. Take cards. | would love to send a card to fends for World Languages Day, or send an e-card but where are they? Toke displays. Google, for example, varies ts lago design in honour of special days, Why not 9 lsplay for the Language Days? Google could not exist without language, 2 Locations to visit you ae interested in science, you can vist @ Science museum, Plats and animals, a natural history museum. Painting, an at gallery. But for languages there is nothing, in county ater county other then the occasional local institute devoted to a single language (such 1s Portuguese in Sbo Pau), and even that is ‘unusual. The fist such physical location devoted to languages in general willbe the Casa de les Lengies (House of Languages) in Barcelona I needs to be fllowed by others. And aready-exstng places need to ‘mount languages exhibitions Ir Britain, uring the late 1990s, there wos 2 plan to set up a World of Language on the South Bank; then the government had better idea, called the Milleariue Dome, all www iol.org.ukefunding ceased, and the project collapsed “Ton years on, the idea was resuscitated with an eye on the 2012 Olympics but once the costs ofthat event began to spiral out of contol, the iniative went of the radar | ve in hope that, one day, Britain wll have is own House of Languages. Meanwil, the Catalan initiative progresses: the bulding in which it willbe housed was formally allocated in 2007 {and should be open to the public in a year 3 Artworks How do we remember someone or some event? We buld a monument or statue (Nelson's Colum), write & play (Shakespeare's Henry Vor piece of music (ehaikovslys 1812 Overue, paint a picture (Picasso's Guernica), make afm (Spielberg’s Amistad. could go through all the ats and point to the commemorate artworks that keep topics inthe forefront of our minds. I presented this argument at a UNESCO conference § and the final summary document did incude a reference to the importance of the ats. But the point, though recognised in theory, remains neglected in practice. For where are the artworks devoted to language and to languages? lam not, ofcourse, taking about the works that have boon composed or constuxcted to cxlebrate an individual language, Ican tink cof several pooms and folksongs that celebrate Welsh, for example, and there are similar compositions in many other languages. 11am taking about commemorations of language in genera, languages, language versity, mullinguaism. Why are major artworks on these themes not commissioned? Vol/49 No/é 2010 I would love to send a card to friends for World Languages Day, or send an e-card, but where are they? 4 Awards How does literature become front-page ews? Or painting, fim, economics, peace, physiology, physics, chemist? You wil perceive, from my examples, that thinking about pias, awards and medals — mest famously the Nobel prizes, There the huge Templeton pie fr progress in religion. Several counvies do their ow thing. The UK has its Turner Prize for contemporary at. France has its Pre Goncourt Inthe US, there ‘are no less than 21 categories of Pulitzer Prize, Ifyou make a ist of annual or biennial prizes, medals and awards on topics of intemational concern you wil nd more than 1,000, When I made such a table, derived ‘rom Wikipedia, guess which domain wae at the bottom. Although there are mere than 300 Isted prizes fr iterate, 30 for journalism, 13 for beauty nd 8 for advertising, the Hated awards for languages number just one. This single reference i to the Linguapax Award {or outstanding workin the feld of language iversty and multiingual education, Why arent there more? Wel, of course, there are more, as the CIOL wel knows; but DECEMBER 2010/JANUARY 2011 The Linguist FULL HOUSE The world first museum oflanguages, Linguamén ~ Casa de les Lengies in Barcelona, is due to open in 2013 ‘ven if we added the annual award of the Institute (which | hope wl happer, we wouldnt move languages very far up the li. The value ofan awards not its monetary value, which can be quite low or non-existent Rather tis the professional recognition it provides to an individual or institution the ‘motivation for action to that person's or instr poe, and the publi for subject thatthe winner professes, Prizes, in other words, keep topic in front ofthe publics attention, year after year. And not just once a year, but every time the recipient is mentioned. Look atthe way juralists deal with them. Witeups do not say “director Ang Leo" but “Oxcarinning director Ang Lee". The attribution Significant: it vansorms a name from someone we might notknow about (fwe are not specials) inte someone that we should know about. And itidentifies areas of knowledge that we fel we should know about. We need to get language in general, and ‘mutiingualim in partcuay, nto that postion. Ir:my ideal future linguistic weld, al four of ‘hese intiatves would be implemented: days, locations, aworks and awerds.Progres is slowly being made, but we have along way +0 90 before we obtain the kind of pubic presence thats needed, Maybe by 2110. fn the meantime, organisations such asthe CIOL need t point the way forward, and with 2 ‘century of experience alroady behind it, have no doubt that it will continue to do so, Notes 1 Hadow Report: Diferentiation ofthe eunicuam for boys and gis spectively in secondary school, 1923, HM Stationery Office, London 2 Gomand, P “Estimating Linguistic Diversity on the teat: Taxonomy to Avoid Pf nd Paradoxes" in Joural of Computer Mediated CCommmunicaton, 128), aricle 8 3 Gra. D, ntomet Lingus, 2011, Routledge, Abingdon A Crystal D, "Crossing the Great Dice: Language Endangerment and Pubic ‘Auareness", 2008, keynote speech tothe Intemational Expert Meeting en Endangered Languoges, UNESCO, Paris ‘5. Crystal, D, “What Do we Do with an Intemational Year of Languages”, 2007, Paper ‘given to the Unescocat forum, Barston, European Languoges Day. 26 September 6 Op. ct 2003 13