The Linguists

How can language oppress a group of people?

Oppression is the state of being subject to oppressive treatment. In the world as of late 2018 there are only 6,500 languages, 2,000 of which have less than 1000 speakers. This is directly influenced by the rise in wide-spoken globalized languages, such as English and Spanish. These select languages depending on the region have been a social norm in many functioning societies, hence it has been accustomed that majority of occupations require one of these multi million languages in order for their success. As such the speakers of languages whom don’t have a significantly large speaker count are going extinct at an alarming rate. To put it simply these speakers of endangered languages are prioritizing their economic gain for themselves and their children by dropping their mother tongue language for one that will guarantee them to assimilate in a modern society and finding a sufficient economic input. In effect oppressing speakers of a language in a way where they won’t have successful economic gain or any power in society if they don’t assimilate with a language that society has chosen for them to speak. Additionally, this has repercussions on the environment of these speakers. As the environment that endangered speakers live on are likely to be far from the city and lacking with advancements that would be seen in more modern settings. It comes to show how stronger languages have repressions and effectively oppresses speakers of endangered languages to effectively assimilate with society and drop their language for a new one.