The Buryat Language in the Global Language System

Abstract

Dutch sociologist Abram de Swaan began to elaborate a model of the global language system in 1993, and in 2001 his book “Words of the  World: The Global Language System” was issued. In Swaan’s opinion, “the multilingual connections between language  groups do not occur haphazardly. But, on the contrary, they  constitute a surprisingly strong and effi cient network that ties  together — directly or indirectly — the six billion inhabitants of the  earth”. There are 1) peripheral, 2) central, 3) supercentral and 4)  hypercentral languages. Different language types have different  functions in the global language system. Central and supercentral  languages of the world are responsible for stability of the whole  system. The hypercentral English language combines the elements of the system in a single unit. Minority languages are a source of  diversity for the development of the system. And there is an  indicator of language learning and language spread — the Q-value,  which characterizes the communicative value of every language.  When the Q-value of some language is extremely low, it is quite hard to save such a language in the contemporary world environment. The present article shows the place of the modern  Buryat language in the Swaan’s system and seeks the way to protect the Buryat language and its dialects against the negative effect of  the globalization process. The paper discusses how the Old  Mongolian script could help fi nd a suitable solution. The number of  Buryat language speakers is rapidly declining. The broad discussion  on the Buryat language problems has been simmering on the  territory of ethnic Buryatia since the late 1980s — i.e. since the  beginning of the Buryat national and cultural revival movement. The  several key “recipes for salvation” of the Buryat language which have been offered by the participants of this discussion during the last five years (except for the “returning” to the Old Mongolian script) can  be identifi ed as follows: 1) re-creation of the language environment, in particular — in the media landscape; 2) restoration of the functions  of the Buryat language at the family level, particularly in urban  areas; 3) teaching of the Buryat literary language at schools; 4) learning of spoken Buryat in different sub-ethnic territories.