Togolese Academics Fight for Linguistic Heritage

多哥学者力争保护文化遗产

From VOA Learning English, this is the Education Report.

这里是美国之音慢速英语教育报道。

Experts estimate that by the end of the century, half of the 6,000 languages spoke on our planet will have disappeared. In west Africa, academics in Togo are trying to protect the small country's rich cultural and language heritage.

专家们估计到本世纪末，地球上6000种语言中的半数会消失。在非洲西部，多哥的学者正试图保护这个小国家丰富的文化和语言遗产。

At the University of Lome, Professor N'bueke Adovi Goeh-Akue shows a visitor some video groups of Gen cultural ritual. The Professor is a cultural heritage specialist, he is also himself a Gen, one of many ethnic groups in Togo.

洛美大学教授N'bueke Adovi Goeh-Akue向一位访客展示了格恩族（Gen）文化仪式的一些视频。该教授是一名文化遗传专家，他本人也是格恩族人，格恩族是多哥众多民族中的一个。

He is making films of Gen cultural customs with financial help from the United States. He says the Gen have an important place in Togo's history and culture. Gen rituals show how its people see their world; the interaction between the living and the dead, the seen and the unseen."

通过美国的资助，他正在拍一些格恩族文化习俗的影片。他说，格恩族在多哥的历史和文化中占有重要地位。格恩族仪式展示了族人如果看待世界，如果看待生和死，可见与非可见之间的相互作用。

The Gen believe in numerous voodoo deities. But today Professor Goeh-Akue says fewer and fewer Gen children go through voodoo initiation ceremonies. He says that increasingly the new generation does not recognize the importance of these cultural traditions.

格恩族信奉为数众多的伏都神。但Goeh-Akue教授表示，如今越来越少的格恩族儿童完成了伏都教的入教仪式。他表示，越来越多的新生一代未能认识到文化传统的重要性。

He says formal education and the spread of Christianity have reduced their influence. Many young people think traditional practices are uncivilized. And while the Gen language is widely spoken in the capital Lome, The Professor says it is not taught in schools.

他说，正规教育和基督教的传播降低了它的影响力。许多年轻人认为传统习俗不文明。Goeh-Akue教授表示，虽然格恩语言在首都洛美被广泛使用，学校却不教这门语言。

Gen is one of about 39 languages spoke in Togo. A specialist in the UNESCO endangered language program says, by the end of the century, more than half of Africa's languages will be gone.

格恩语是多哥通用的39种语言之一。联合国教科文组织濒危语言项目的一位专家表示，到本世纪末，非洲半数以上的语言会消亡。

The specialist Anahit Minasyan says a language needs speakers, preferably people who speak as their mother-tongue or first language. But she says a language at least needs people who can speak it as their second language.

Anahit Minasyan专家表示，一门语言需要使用者，最好是作为母语或第一语言的使用者。但她表示，一门语言至少需要将其最为第二语言的使用者。

If they are tiny, she says , a language is extinct. She says languages can die as a result of an increasingly globalized world.

她表示如果使用者极少，一门语言就会消亡。她说，语言还会因为世界的日益全球化而消亡。

"People switch to a language or they raise their children in a language which they think will provide for a better economic opportunity in the future."

她说，“人们会转向或教孩子一门他们认为未来能够提供更好经济机会的语言。”

Ms. Minasyan says in Africa, for example, people often switch to larger African languages — not necessarily to English or French, instead, people might switch to Hausa or Swahili or Wolof, these are more speakers and provide more economic opportunities than their mother tongues.

Minasyan女士表示以非洲为例，人们通常会转向更通用的非洲语言，不一定是英语或法语，相反人们可能会转向豪萨语、斯瓦希里语或沃洛夫语，这些语言有很多使用者，比他们的母语提供了更多的经济机会。

Socio-linguist Komlan Essizewa says that today many young urban Togolese switch among several languages, these include the Mina language spoken in cities.

社会语言学家Komlan Essizewa表示，如今许多多哥的城市年轻人转向了若干种语言，其中包括城里说的Mina语。

"As a linguist, we have to be very worried about it. Because today, even when people move back to their village, they don't use the language of the village as it is."

他说，“作为一名语言学家，我们必须对此严重关注。因为如今，人们即使搬回他们的村庄，也不说该村本来的语言。”

And that's the Education Report, I'm Bob Doughty.