Alumna Saves Endangered Languages in Australia
July 19, 2011
Many people are dedicated to the preservation of endangered species, but College alumna Amanda Hamilton (C’06) is concerned with another global threat: endangered languages.
Hamilton works as a linguist for the Wangka Maya Pilbara Aboriginal Language Centre in South Hedland, Australia. Although she took her first Linguistics class with College Associate Dean Sue Lorenson, she majored in English before becoming interested in language conservation. At Wangka Maya, she focuses on preserving the native languages of western Australia.
“I am drawn to endangered language work because it represents an intersection of my biggest interests: language, travel, and social justice,” Hamilton said. In many cases, the disappearance of a language reveals “a problem of inequality…[since] the groups that feel pressured, from inside or out, to trade one language for another are almost always economically, politically, or socially disenfranchised.”
To stave off this cultural loss, Hamilton “collaborate[s] with speakers of aboriginal languages…to make recordings of their languages, analyze them, and create materials that are useful to speakers, linguists, and the general community.” Over 30 languages were originally spoken in the Pilbara region, and while the center works to preserve each of them, Hamilton focuses on two: Thalanyji and Nyangumarta. Using the linguistic data gathered from interviews and records, she creates illustrated-word books with audio recordings in order to preserve and hopefully revitalize these languages.
However straightforward it may seem, the work of linguistic documentation can take a lifetime, Hamilton explained, as linguists often have to crack the codes of languages they have never spoken or heard themselves. The process of understanding vocabulary, structure, and pronunciation moves slowly. “When a linguist begins work on a language for which no recordings or previous studies exist, he or she starts by collecting basic wordlists,” Hamilton said. “These lists contain simple, concrete words that are usually easy to translate and not borrowed from other languages. Linguists use these words to begin figuring out the language’s sound system.” Longer sentences and phrases bring clues about the language’s structure and usage. While studies can take years, linguists begin publishing articles, grammar guides, dictionaries, and children’s books as their research progresses.
Hamilton believes strongly that linguistic diversity requires not only preservation, but active promotion in communities with native speakers. Where many people may believe that fewer languages would allow the world to work more closely together, Hamilton argues that “linguistic homogenization won’t work out our global disagreements.” Instead, the death of many languages presents “a catastrophic loss of cultural and scientific knowledge—an irrevocable decimation of our greatest accomplishments as a species.”
Hamilton continued, “While no one can say for certain, researchers estimate that before the end of this century between 50 and 90 percent of all currently-spoken languages will lose their last speaker. That’s one every two weeks.” When a language is lost, cultural knowledge ranging from medicine to agriculture can also disappear, as well as our ability to study how the brain both creates and works through speech. Hamilton also emphasized, “Language loss represents a humanitarian concern as well as a scientific and anthropological one, and preserving linguistic diversity is one method of promoting social justice.”
Yet “a major challenge” of language preservation, Hamilton explained, is that “it requires input and collaboration on an enormously broad scale.” The ideal preservationist would be “equal parts linguist, community organizer, education specialist, and marketing executive—and, crucially, also a member of the endangered language speech community itself.” While Hamilton admits she is far from the perfect language ambassador, her time in the College provided her with many tools, including a strong foundation in linguistics, an ability to question the status quo, and the desire to bring “innovative approaches to a topic so that everything I produce brings valuable new knowledge to the field.”
Ultimately, Hamilton takes pride in her efforts to restore languages in danger of extinction. “People love language. You don’t have to be a specialist to be fascinated by it, or to feel attached to your native or ancestral way of speaking. It’s incredibly rewarding to help people create outlets for expressing the natural pride and interest they have in their language.”
--Jessica Beckman
Photos from top: Hamilton conducts linguistics research in Indonesia; an adventurer at heart, Hamilton boats in Botswana and attends a soccer match in Tanzania. Courtesy of Amanda Hamilton.
