Umbrian Language: Iguvine Tablets

See the little towns... Gubbio

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Leah: What a climb. But we made it. In here.

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Gubbio Civical Museum:
Tablets III to VII

Aria: We came here to see these?

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Leah: Discovered by a farmer in a field in 1444.

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Aria: What’s the writing mean?

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Leah: Part Umbrian, written before Christ, a dead language now, and part in Latin.

Translate that!

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Aria: Another dead one.

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Leah: But these are linguistic and cultural gems. The largest complete Umbrian text in existence. And all about sacrificial customs carried out in Gubbio here, two thousand years ago.

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Aria: Sacrifices? Who did they kill?

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Leah: Not people, but oxen, sheep, goats, pigs, puppies. To protect the mountain, to protect the city. All carried out by a religious brotherhood according to strict protocols. Bird flights determine auspicious timing, some animals are sacrificed outside the city gates, some inside, how the officiator is to be dressed, and how to conduct the ceremony.

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Voice-over

A community which protects itself through sacrificial rites is not so far back in the past. David Wootton writes in “The Invention of Science” that in the 1600s, even educated Englishmen, who might own as many as a dozen books, believed in the power of witches, werewolves, magicians, unicorns, alchemy, astrology and a flat earth. A few still do. Fascinating to see how we thought before reason and science helped us make better sense of the world.

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Language learning

The Master speaks 50 languages. The student asks how he does it.

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Teacher: Start with the simple stuff: everyday objects, body parts. After nouns go to verbs, make sentences. Listen to the sounds.

Student: How long does it take to learn a new language?

Teacher: An hour for the essentials. A week for the complex grammar of a difficult language like Dutch.

Student: Any tricks?

Teacher: Use tools. Film subtitles are good. Oh, and leverage your resources. If you are learning one language, learn two or three others at the same time.

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Voiceover

Kenneth Hale put his language gifts to humanitarian use. He learned languages that were dying. Some he could rescue.

He reckoned that when we lose a language we lose “intellectual wealth, a work of art. It’s like dropping a bomb on the Louvre.”

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Language death

Emma wonders why Marka is interested in preserving Sorbian language.

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Emma: How many are regular users of Sorbian?

Marka: 15,000 in Upper Lusatia, particularly used in churches.

Emma: Do they use it in your church?

Marka: Of course. They don’t in Lower Lusatia, but here all the clergy speak Sorbian.

Emma: Who would care if Sorbian just, well, disappeared?

Marka: Linguists would care. Many young people in Upper Lusatia would care.

Emma: So why would they care? The numbers are declining.

Marka: It’s not a question of numbers. It’s not just a question of mere words going extinct. There’s the culture, the customs, the events, the stories.

Emma: Ah. To lose the stories!

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Voiceover

Language attrition leads to language death. Why is language death so important? Surely there are plenty of other languages in the world that are not threatened by extinction and do the job equally well?

If the Sorbs lose their language, it will be an intellectual disaster for their culture. In universal linguistic terms, perhaps a micro-disaster.

David Crystal uses the analogy of ecology, arguing that languages which are endangered should be at the top of environmental agenda.

He argues that a world which recognized English as the single global language which displaced all others would be the greatest intellectual disaster the world has ever known. Perhaps a macro-disaster.

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