6/20/2023 0 Comments Languages lost to time![]() ![]() "Then more people were saying, "Well, we should put in some comparative materials. "And I thought, well, what if I could create an image that roughly would be the architecture of the Kurdish language incurred through an abstract design that could be used as the cover? "At the time, I was just finishing a book project, and I felt that I couldn't quite come up with a single image that would go on the cover. Pillen explains: "The seed of the idea for this work came from our initial conversations-with each of us coming at this from our own different disciplines. candidate Emma-Kate Matthews (Bartlett School of Architecture at UCL). The multi-disciplinary study brought together Dr. Transcript of above sample, translated from Tariana to English. The first of its kind in the world, the project and its outputs not only enable the visual demonstration of the architecture of language, but also enables its preservation in a permanent, solid form.Ī nylon prototype made via the latest industrial type of 3D printing (Multi Jet Fusion), based on a language sample from an Amazonian language (Tariana). The researchers were then able to create four prototypes and digital 3D images from this, which they printed as 3D objects. The design software then turned these points into a 3D shape, virtually filling in the digital weave of warp and weft to appear as a smooth, woven undulating surface. They plotted points in three dimensions, with the numerical values derived from evidentials along the Z axis, the number of syllables along the Y axis and timeline on the X axis. Tariana contains a hierarchy of preferred evidentials, ranging from information obtained through direct visual observation to the repetition of information related by someone else. In one of the languages they focused on-the Amazonian language Tariana-speakers are grammatically obliged to indicate the nature of the evidence they're conveying at all times, unlike in English, where this isn't required. They gave a numerical value to "evidential weight"-that is, the nature of the evidence being conveyed. To create their 3D designs, they drew on the sounds of a language-the number of syllables in a line-as well as its grammar, focusing on a particular grammatical system called evidentials. Rather than only listening to a recording, scientists have now made it possible to also handle a language excerpt physically, by building 3D printed models based on language patterns and grammar.Īs part of a study published in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, scientists explored how the structure of language can be represented in 3D using software commonly used for game, film and video animation. But the "shape" of humanity's natural languages and their high-dimensional form mostly remain to be fully explored and modeled as visual material-similar to how we envision the double helix of DNA. Language is often only imagined in the shape dictated by our writing system-as words on a page or as sound. ![]() In response to this growing trend, an anthropologist and architect at UCL have come together to present and preserve some of these languages in a truly unique way, using inspiration and technology from animation in the gaming industry. The consequences of language loss-also known as linguicide-are felt around the world, affecting identity and well-being as well as culture and linguistic diversity. About 1,500 endangered and rare languages are at a high risk of being lost in the next century. Between 19, around 230 languages were wiped from human memory. Yet around half of these languages are endangered. However, over the years, the continent has lost at least 52 known languages in a phenomena known as language death, which involves the loss of the last native speaker of a specific language language extinction, which refers to when language is no longer known linguicide, which is the death of a language due to natural or political reasons and glottophagy, which happens when a smaller language is absorbed in or replaced by a major language.īelow are Africa’s extinct languages.It's estimated that there are over 7,000 documented languages spoken across the world.
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