1. Study the vocabulary:

‘killer language’ – ’язык-убийца’

a group comprising more than 20 languages – группа, включающая в себя более 20 языков

alongside – рядом

bilingual rights – двуязычные права

Carpathians – Карпаты

decade – десятилетие

extant tongue – сохранившийся язык

indigenous minorities – коренные малочисленные народы

indisputably – бесспорно

Khanty – ханты

Mansi – манси

misconception – заблуждение

Ob-Ugrian mother-tongues – обско-угорские родные языки

Papua New Guinea – Папуа-Новая Гвинея

realm of high culture or science – сфера высокой культуры или науки

remedy – лекарство, средство

similarity – сходство

that is as far as it goes – но не более того

the University of Szombathely – университет г. Сомбатхея (Венгрия)

tributary of the Ob River – приток реки Оби

Western Siberia – Западная Сибирь

2. Answer the questions.

1. How many languages can disappear in 100 years according to pessimists’ opinion?

2. Who made a report on indigenous Finno-Ugric languages in Tallinn?

3. What Finno-Ugric languages will be the first to disappear?

4. What does “killer language” mean?

5. What is the most toxic “killer language”?

6. How many languages will be spoken by 2100?

7. What remedy does Skutnabb-Kangas speak of?

8. In what country can a linguist find 850 languages?

9. How many languages are there in the Finno-Ugric group?

10. How many people speak Uralic languages?

11. What are national languages in Finland?

12. Do Hungarians, Finnish and Estonians understand each other fluently?

3. Translate the sentences from Russian into English.

1. Профессор Янош Пустай утверждает, что количество носителей финно-угорских и уральских языков сократится вдвое к 2093 г.

2. Через 50–100 лет, возможно, сохранятся лишь 10–20% современных языков.

3. Россия – это дом для многих финно-угорских народов.

4. В Европе имеется около 230 языков.

5. В Азии распространены 32% языков мира, а в Африке – 30%.

6. Самый опасный ‘язык-убийца’ – это английский, язык современных технологий и Интернета.

7. Финский и венгерский языки являются родственными, хотя их носители не понимают друг друга.

4. Read the text ‘Killer languages’ strengthen their grip. Are these statements true or false?

1. Russia has more languages than Papua New-Guinea.

2. Finnish is an Indo-European language.

3. Finnish is the only official language in Finland.

4. According to professor Pusztay Khanty and Mansi languages will disappear in 100 years.

5. According to the most pessimistic prediction 50% of the world current languages will die out by the beginning of the 22^nd century.

6. Russian is the most toxic “killer language” in the world

7. Finnish is very similar to Swedish.

8. Khanty and Mansi are the largest members of Finno-Ugric language family.

9. Finns don’t understand Hungarians.

10. Professor Pusztay believes that there will be only 50 % of the Uralic languages left by the end of this century.

5. Retell the text. Fields and aspects of linguistics

As with all the other sciences in our day, it is not possible for any one man to take all linguistics for his province. Therefore linguistics has many subdivisions, representing various ways in which the subject matter can be cut up. We may recognize three groups of these divisions, which can be called fields, aspects and branches.

The various fields of linguistics are arrived at by dividing the total subject matter into various language groups, language families, and individual languages. Thus we can speak of Indo-European, Semitic, or Algonkian linguistics, all of which deal with large language families. Or the field may be progressively narrowed. The field, Ame­rican English, belongs in the largest sense to Indo-European linguistics. This includes many lesser fields, among them Germanic, which in turn includes English.

The aspects of linguistics are divisions of the subject matter on the basis of time or point of view. Here the fundamental distinction is between synchronic and diachronic linguistics. Synchronic, a term also used in other fields such as anthropology, means ‘dealing with the state of affairs at a given point of time’. It takes no account of history, in other words. On the other hand, diachronic, also used in other sciences, means ‘dealing with changes that occur in time’. History is its material. This distinction between synchronic and diachronic linguistics is very important because many mistakes and fallacies result from overlooking it.

There is another kind of statement we can make about language, which, in effect, means there is another aspect under which we can study it. If we return to Shakespeare’s ‘most unkindest cut of all’ it is apparent, that we can make a statement of this sort: ‘The double superlative, was used in Shakespeare’s English, but it is not used in the English of the twentieth century.’ The study of language from this point of view is comparative linguistics. It is always based on a foundation of synchronic or historical linguistics, or both, simply because comparisons are impossible without something to compare.

Finally, before we take leave of this rather lengthy discussion of the subdivision of linguistics according to aspect, we should take note of the term structural linguistics. This is used to denominate the kind of linguistics which is primarily interested in discovering and describing as concisely and accurately as possible the interrelationships and patterns which make up the intricate structures of languages.

The third method by which the subject matter of linguistics can be subdivided is on the basis of the various parts, or layers of structure, which go to make up speech. This gives us the various branches of linguistics. Four branches may be recognized. They are:

Phonetics, whose subject matter is sound-features or qualities and their organization into speech-sounds, or phones.

Phonemics, whose subject matter is the organization of phones into groups or families, called phonemes, whose members are the significant sounds of speech.

Morphemics, whose subject matter is the organization of phonemes into meaningful groups called morphs. It is also concerned with the organization of these morphs into family groups, called morphemes, and the combination of morphemes into words.

Grammar, whose subject matter is the organization of words into various combinations, often representing many layers of structure, such as phrases, sentences, and complete utterances. Phonology is a cover term embracing phonetics and phonemics. Morphology and syntax are subdivisions of grammar; the former deals with the structure of words, the latter with the structure of word groups.