Learning to Speak Sami

Sami Flag (from Wikipedia)

In a recent AP news article entitled, "In Hebrew's revival, a Nordic people see hope," reporter Daniella Cheslow describes the efforts teachers of the Sami language are making in reviving their native tongue.  The Sami (also know as the Lapp) are an indigenous people living in the northern regions of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia.  Cheslow estimates that there are roughly 80,000 to 100,000 Sami of which only about 30,000 speak a Sami language.  According to the the Wikipedia entry, "Sami people," there are ten distinct Sami languages, all of which are endangered.  Cheslow's article reports on a trip made by Sami language teachers to Israel to study the way in which it maintains the Hebrew language in the face of continuing immigration of new people to Israel.  Israeli teaching methods have been studied by other indigenous peoples seeking to save their languages from a slow extinction, including the Welsh.

While the world is painfully aware of the decline in the bio-diversity of our world, most of us are less aware of the continuing loss of linguistic diversity as well.  It was my privilege to work for a time with Karen churches in northern Thailand.  The Karen in Thailand are facing the same decline in the numbers of ethnic Karen who speak Karen.  Only recently has the Thai government allowed the use of Karen as a language of instruction in public schools where the Karen predominate, and there is immense pressure from the larger society to use Thai as one's first language.  Although they learn Karen at home, fewer and fewer young people can read the language and more and more they speak only Thai.

There is more at stake than the loss of just the language.  Language is a primary carrier of culture, and where a language is dying away it is certain that a culture is dying as well—ways of dressing, eating, and living together in a unique society.  Cultural diversity is important because it maintains the richness of human life.  There are thoughts best thought in Karen just as there are thoughts best thought in Thai.  We learn from our differences, and it is just that much harder for us to learn from each other when yet another language dies.  I remember vividly a gathering of Karen local church leaders discussing the decline of the Karen language at which one older participant spoke to the tragedy saying in effect, "Karen is a gift from God, and if we are to be faithful to God we have to save our language."  Amen.