Language and Voice

These resources cannot be neglected much longer without lasting negative effects. While we have introdu ed here the idea of a “resource-language” to talk about cultural and linguistic maintenance, we must see the differences between these and material resources like coal and oil. We can leave the oil in the ground and it will still be there to use in a hundred years; the more we use it, and the more we use it unwisely, the less we have of it later. Just the opposite is true of language and culture. The more we use these, the more we have of them; but the longer we neglect their use, the closer we are to extinguishing them. That has already happened for some languages, and we may be starting to see the consequences. The world will end one day, and the overriding cause is more likely to be a shortage of such human resources as language and culture, which could aid in promoting international understanding, than a shortage of such physical resources as coal and oil. (Richard Ruiz, 1983 Ruiz, R. (1983). Ethnic group interests and the social good: Law and language in education. In W. A. Van Horne (Ed.), Ethnicity, law and the social good (Vol. 2, pp. 49–73). Milwaukee, WI: University of Wisconsin System American Ethnic Studies Coordinating Committee/Urban Corridor Consortium. (Richard Ruiz, 1983, p. 65)