Languages

Often languages are just seen as the way we, humans, communicate. However, languages are way more than just that. Languages influence the way we think, act and speak as well as the way we behave in a given social context and the way we perceive things in our environment. Therefor language is an instrument to express our perception of reality. Through language we are able to identify ourselves and our culture. No wonder, it is important to pass on our language to the next generation. But what if this doesn’t happen? What if our children will not able to speak our language?

 

Endangered languages

An endangered language is a language which is likely to become extinct in the near future. In contrast to a healthy language, which becomes new speakers, an endangered language loses speakers. Many languages are endangered because they are simply not being used or have been replaced by others that are more widely used in the region, such as English in the U.S. or Spanish in Mexico. Unless we do something about this, these endangered languages will become extinct within the near future.

Currently there are about 7000 languages spoken in the world. However, the 20 most common languages are spoken by over half of the world’s population. Most other languages  are spoken by fewer than 10000 people. Many linguists therefor predict that 50 to 90% of today’s languages will have become extinct by  the year 2100.

According to Ethnologue, a database of research agency SIL International, the largest number of endangered languages can be found within 5 areas; eastern Siberia, Central Siberia, Northern Australia, Central America and the Northwest Pacific Plateau. Notable about these regions is that they are either occupied by aboriginal people speaking diverse languages or they consist out of a lot minority communities.