We can all Help Prevent Language Loss
It is estimated that there are around 7,000 languages that are spoken in the world today. The languages spoken fall into 140 language families, or groups of languages that are related based on a shared parental language. Ethnologue, a language website, provides a comprehensive listing of all the world’s languages. A review of this list shows that six language families account for 66% of the languages spoken in the world today. The six most prominent language families in the world follow below:
Niger-Congo (1,535 languages)
Austronesian (1,225 languages)
Trans-New Guinea (477 languages)
Sino-Tibetan (455 languages)
Indo- European (445 languages)
Afro-Asiatic (371 languages)
Of course, not all languages are spoken by the same number of people. For example, Mandarin Chinese is spoken by almost one billion people, while according to the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) there are 65 languages that are spoken by two or less people. In fact, UNESCO estimates that there are close to 3,000 languages or 42% of all languages that exist today, that are endangered, or likely to become extinct soon.
The potential loss of so many languages is alarming. However, there are actions we can each take to try to prevent language loss. These actions include the following:
Maintain your heritage language, if you have one
Learn a new language, especially one that is endangered
Help prevent the loss of endangered languages. The Endangered Language Project provides a map of endangered languages throughout the world. You can identify endangered languages near you and then search for programs aimed to protect these languages.
Support language appreciation, awareness, and advocacy in your community. This can involve volunteering to help teach a heritage language class, helping advocate for more classes for heritage language learners, and supporting research that documents languages in danger of extinction.
Photo Credit: Ryjoi Iwata on Unspash.
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