러시아 북극권의 절멸 위기에 처한 소수민족어 - 코미어와 네네츠어를 중심으로

Abstract

What kind of world are we leaving for our children and grandchildren? Geoscientist Laurence Smith drew on the latest global modeling research to construct a sweeping thought experiment on what our world will be like in 2050. The result is both good news and bad: Eight nations of the Arctic Rim will become increasingly prosperous, powerful, and politically stable, while those closer to the equator will face water shortages, aging populations, and crowded megacities sapped by the rising costs of energy and coastal flooding. Likewise, Arctic Circle is getting hot for new interests of its neighboring countries as well as global warming. Arctic Circle was an abandoned area for centuries; however, the region recently has become a rosy place for great quantities of available natural resources, new North Pole Routes and newly developed tourism due to the global warming. As a member of observer countries in the Arctic Council, S. Korea has got the chance to participate in the development of the Arctic. Then, not only political and economic studies but also linguistic approach acts as a core element for the development of the Arctic since the language represents the identity and culture of a people as well as a means of the communication. Therefore, it is a good starting point to research the situation of the minority languages in the Arctic such as Nenets and Komi when dealing with the Arctic. Unfortunately, ‘UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger’ presents a grave picture of the world’s languages which are extinct or are on the verge of extinction. The fates of Nenets and Komi languages seem to be doomed to fade away. According to ‘UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger’, Bahtin and ‘UNESCO Red Book on Endangered Languages’, the dialects of Nenets and Komi languages belong to the categories of ‘Definitely endangered’ or ‘Severely endangered’. For the preservation and the protection of endangered minority languages I suggest five tasks we all need to care about; i) international cooperation for the linguistic rights of the minorities, ii) the enhancement of legal status of minor language speaking people, iii) the practice of minority language education in home as well as at school, iv) the verbatim record and documentation of a minority language, v) the inducement of non-governmental organizations and nonprofit organizations for the campaign of endangered language protection. When it comes to the necessity of the linguistic diversity, I am concerned with the idea that linguistic diversity is important to human intellectual life – not only in the context of scientific linguistic inquiry, but also in relation to the class of human activities belonging to the realms of culture and art. Language is also crucial to such basic mental processes such as thinking, understanding and even dreaming. Arguments for preserving linguistic diversity in terms of protecting and promoting languages and providing linguistic rights can be classified into three broad streams, viz. identity-based, justice-based and diversity-based arguments. As concerns indigenous and minority language support programs, Russian government has not taken an active and constrictive role in accepting and promoting linguistic diversity as a critical value of life. Rather, the government tends to push for monolingualism in the national languages, putting forth misguided arguments, such as that multilingualism threatens national unity or that language programs are too costly. To stimulate the government in the wrong track like Russia and enlighten the issue of linguistic diversity crisis, scholars have studied and maintained the researches in two categories during the 1990s and into the twenty-first century: those aiming to document languages and preserve a record of them in grammars, dictionaries and texts, and those aiming to support and promote linguistic diversity as such, as a key component of the diversity of life. Linguistic diversity is, therefore, essential to the human heritage with each and every language embodying the unique cultural and historical wisdom of a people. We need to remember that the loss of any language is an irrevocable loss for all humanity.