Our Languages Are Dying

An interesting article was published recently in the New York Times about how swiftly our oral traditions are vanishing.

Some facts...
Of the estimated 7,000 languages spoken in the world today nearly half are in danger of extinction and likely to disappear in this century.

One language falls out of use about every two weeks.

Also mentioned in the story is the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, whose interesting mission is "scientific documentation of endangered languages and helping communities maintain and revitalize their linguistic heritage." The group has started a 5-year joint project with the National Geographic Society titled "Enduring Voices" that launched this fall. They traveled to Australia one of five "language hotspots," i.e. areas in the world where languages are dying rapidly. Central South America, northern Australia, eastern Siberia, the Pacific Northwest in the United States and the Oklahoma region are the five areas of most concern to Living Tongues.

Why is it important to save these languages? Simply because every language contains the collective history of an entire people. Endangered languages span the globe from Africa (Anfillo to Xiri) to Europe (Manx to Sami), South America (Tariano to Aura) to Asia (Harsusi to Kadazan).

Let's do our best to support these groups in their efforts and let's try and learn a new language while we're at it. Sampai jumpa lagi (Indonesian for goodbye)!