Languages Lost

[wannalurnspanish]

It makes me sad when I hear of people who are in families who know other people in their family who speak the language, but can't speak it themselves. It makes me think of "languages lost" in my own family, and how if everyone just taught their kids the languages to begin with, how many more languages everyone would know.

For example, I guess one of my great-grandmothers on my father's side was fluent in Polish. Polish!! That's not a language I'd actively try to learn, but it's sad to think it's been lost in our family because as far as I know, it wasn't passed on to her children, and therefore was lost in our family.

On my mom's side, my grandmother is Pennsylvania Dutch, and both her parents were fluent in German, but never spoke it to their 8 or 9 children. Another lost language! I could've grown up knowing these cool languages!!

Have there been any languages that have been "lost" in your family throughout the generations? If so, which ones?

[Elly]

I grew up in the Philippines, but my single mother (never knew my father) was fluent in American English. That's what we spoke at home, that's the language in the books she had for her children to read, so I'd watch television shows in English, and even at school many of my classmates were forced to speak English--which I was fine with going along with because I didn't have that problem.

There was also this strange "can or can't" mentality that went with it...during break time at school, we were allowed to speak Tagalog (or Filipino, or Cebuano, Ilongo or whatever) but it never occurred to any of us that if they spoke Filipino with me around then I would eventually learn it. It was just sort of, "Well, if you can't then you can't." I suppose that was nice of them, but I wish I wasn't so disconnected with my own culture.

What really fascinated me, though, was that my great-grandparents on my mother's side were Italian and Irish. I think that Italian is a beautifully powerful language, but for some reason gets left out in most school extracurriculars or courses--it's all Spanish and French. I don't even know if my great-grandmother came from a Gaelic-speaking part of Ireland, but this heritage has also given me a fascination for the language.

[Bloomsie]

Unfortunately, LOADS of languages will be lost within my family.

On my father's side, my grandmother originated from Algeria (French), my grandfather's family from Poland. My grandmother knows French, Spanish and English. My grandfather knows Polish, Hebrew, French, Spanish, English and some Yiddish. My dad was the only one out of three in his family to know French, Spanish, English, Hebrew and he later taught himself Japanese.

On my mother's side, my grandmother is from Morocco and my grandfather is from Egypt. My grandmother knows Arabic, Hebrew, English and Spanish. My grandfather knows Hebrew, English and Arabic. My mother along with the rest in her family (in a family of 6) knows Hebrew and some Arabic. My mom was fortunate enough to learn Canadian French while growing up in Canada before coming to America.

With this said, my brother and I were born in a pile of languages. Unfortunately, him and I only know English. We can understand the languages, but we can't speak them. So they're considered lost. Luckily, my boyfriend and perhaps fiance-to-be knows Hebrew, and there can be a language that would still be alive and found!

[g2narat]

It's more of dialects lost in my family but I understand what you mean. My grandmother spoke Kapampangan while my grandfather was fluent in Ilokano. My mother knew a bit of Kapampangan but not enough to pass it on to us. It's sad but at the same time, I know languages that they don't so at least I can sort of make up for the lost languages.

[LindaKay]

I do think that's unfortunate. I think people should know the language of their ancestors whenever possible. They should obviously still know the national language for the place where they reside, but that doesn't mean that they can't learn both. It seems like kids are able to learn languages more quickly and easily than older kids or adults, so why not go ahead and knock it out and teach them while they're young?

[Trellum]

I've seen that happening a lot with Mexican and latino families in the US.  I think it's a shame the kids weren't exposed to the Spanish language enough in order to retain most of the language at least. It's truly a shame and I believe it's caused by the lack of interest and effort in the parents! 

I'll actually teach my language to my kids even if I move to Holland, because I know how important is is for my kids to be able to communicate with grandma in her native language

[Rosa]

I don't happen to be in that situation but it is something that I think of all the time when I see this happening with others and it is truly an unfortunate situation. I have a friend whose native language is English but he studied Spanish by immersion while in college abroad. He now has a wife and children and his wife hasn't taken the opportunity to learn the language but his kids are fluent in both languages so I do understand.