From: Eagle_wng
Dagestan languages face extinction
18/07/2007
Makhachkala / Agency Caucasus – Thirty different languages spoken in Dagestan face obliteration as a direct consequence of wide availability of the Russian language in the country. A further 14 official languages in this part of Caucasus face the same threat of extinction.
A group of people gathered on July 12 in the Dagestan capital of Makhachkala to discuss linguistic deterioration. Initiated by the Avar Centre for Culture, the conference gathering hosted at the Dagestan Centre for Science, a division of the Russian Academy of Sciences, talks that focused on language learning at middle schools.
Speakers at the conference warned against a future irrecoverable change for worse in the ethnic structure of Dagestan .
Data from the Russian government put the current number of nations available in Dagestan at around 30. Despite the fact that the Dagestan constitution grants all nations equal rights, only the following list of languages is recognized as constitutionally public languages in Dagestan: Avar, Agul, Azeri, Dargin, Kumuk, Lak, Lezgin, Nogay, Rutul, Tabasaran, Tatski Tsahurski, Chechen and Russian.
Only and only Russian
Speakers agreed on the idea that favoured the Russian language as the sole official code of communication. The teaching of Russian starts at elementary schools and is financially sponsored as well. The situation is reversed with the other Dagestan mother tongues. It was officially banned a couple of years ago for radio programmes to be broadcast in national languages. The hours of TV programmes are critically limited, too.
Intellectuals are most upset with what the national ministry officials have been doing. One speaker accused the national ministry officials of allocating four hours only a week to teaching language, literature and history courses.
A period of 10 to 15 years would be enough for a language to be obliterated if strict measurements are not taken, speakers said. Death of a language would imply death of a nation, they added.
Gaci Gamzatov, the brother of the poet Rasul Gamzatov, was unhappy when he admitted that his grandchildren could not speak their mother tongues.
All speakers ended their discussion with a resolution to appeal to President Mukhu Aliyev for prompt action to save mother tongues in Dagestan .
KU/ÖZ/FT
http://www.ajanskafkas.com/haber,16345,detay.htm
