Indigenous languages and Recovery of Human Values

Abstract

Values appear to exist only in the realm of the human species. The realm of values and ethics lifts man from barbarism and savagery. Human values are virtues that guide us to take into account the human element when one interacts with other human beings. They are the many positive dispositions that create bonds of humanity between people and thus have value for all of us as human beings. Human values are the foundation for any viable life within the society. No peaceful human society is possible without values. Shared values and ethics are vital for the proper functioning of the economic, political and social network and also, for the well-being and development of the potential of every world citizen. As it stands, in the race of materialisation, we are losing our moral and human values and turning towards savagery hence the urgent need for the recovery of human values. Today, nations both developed and developing, face erosion of humanistic, ethical and moral values. In the normal course of events these values are absorbed along with one's mother tongue in the first years of life. For that reason, cultural value and mother tongue are so intertwined in public consciousness that they are often, but mistakenly, seen as inseparable. Language is the carrier of the cultural heritage of societies thus the death of a language constitutes the annihilation of norms, values, attributes and beliefs of a people. It does not require any intellectual analysis to realise that indigenous languages stock people's cultural heritage. Indigenous languages contain complex understanding of a person's culture and their connection with their land. Thus human values are passed by parents to their offspring soon after childbirth are instilled throughout the children's upbringing. These values are passed from generation to generation. As they grow, children learn more values from their peers, religious leaders, teachers, friends and society at large. Indigenous language is fully laden with peoples' cherished cultural and traditional values which a second language can never unveil. The paper argues that indigenous language is a veritable instrument for a proper recovery of human values. The work is divided into sections: definition of concepts, effect of human value erosion, the need for recovery of human values, indigenous languages and human values and finally, the task ahead.