Extinction of Languages - Review

Part 1Paragraph 1 to 4

10

Please give one example of a "healthy language".

Mandarin Chinese
English
Spanish
(others)

20

How many languages are seriously threatened?

3,000

30

How many languages are dissapearing every year?

10

40

Define what a "healthy language" is.

A language where there are more than 1 million speakers.

Part 2Paragraph 5 to 7

10

Please give one example of a job that requires English.

Pilot
Air Traffic Controller
English Teacher
(others)

20

What is lost if a language dies?

Ways of life.
Sets of knowledge.
Religious and social customs.
Oral histories.
Plant, animal, and environment information.

30

Why did the Maori language decline?

European settlers arrived.
Children were punished for speaking it.
Urbanized Maori people did not use it.

40

Explain a possible "benefit" of language extinction.

Universal communication.
Increased homogeneity.
Convenience.

Part 1Paragraph 8 to 10

10

What organization is promoting the need to preserve culture?

UNESCO

20

What revived, israeli language is now spoken by more than 5 million people?

Hebrew

30

Define "trilingualism"

Speaking 3 languages:
a mother tongue,
a neighbor language,
and an international language.

40

Why is it "too late" for some languages?

Only a few speakers remain.
Too many words have been forgotten.
The speakers use it very little.

Trivial Question

10

Which mother-language is considered to be the most common in the world?

Mandarin Chinese

20

How many English words are there?
(Each team gets a guess)

dog / dogs = 2 words

1,000,000
One million!

30

What percent of English words are loan words?
loan word = a word taken from another language
(Each team gets a guess)

80%

40

How many Japanese words are now used in English?

500