Endangered Languages

It is well known that animals in many parts of the world are endangered as a result of human activity in their habitat, from global warming and from being killed - whether for food or medicine or being perceived as threat.

What is less well appreciated is the number of languages that are also endangered. Some researchers claim that around 6,000 languages are spoken in the world but one disappears every fortnight. Kraus and Wurm estimate that 3,000 of the world's languages could be lost before the year 2100.

Threats come from generally from integration and conformity - a process in which isolated communities are becoming either integrated with larger groups or are dying out completely as they are unable to integrate. Improved transport means groups are less isolated; the temptation of westernised luxury goods may appeal to a group living at a subsistence level. Government encouragement to conform may mean a focus on a limited number of languages to the detriment of small clusters of people.

The identity of a group of people is closely linked to their native language, which expresses their history and their way of life. Even today, a thousand years after invasion by the Norman French, many English speakers refer to the deep seated appeal of Anglo Saxon words as opposed to the superficiality of the French.

"Every last word means another lost world"

Whatever the truth of the Sapir Wharf hypothesis that Language determines thought, it is clear that a language is a badge of belonging, a sign that there is a common understanding and some kind of common culture. A people often becomes fiercely proud of their culture if it is threatened, though they may be powerless to prevent themselves being overwhelmed by a larger group backed by a government or under other inexorable forces.

One of these forces, ironically, is the influence of the very bodies aiming to save them. Christian organisations trying to convert isolated tribes have historically spread the word of the Bible, which aims to change the traditional tribal beliefs. On the other hand they have in many cases been the means by which traditional languages have been written down for the first time, thus helping to preserve them.

According to one organisation, SIL, at least 100 languages will not be passed down to the next generation. They list some 516 languages classified as "nearly extinct" which includes in Europe some versions of the Saami or Lapp language and the language of lower Silesia, plus large numbers of native languages in North America and in Australia.

Inuit or Eskimo languages are particularly vulnerable from a combination of global warming, cultural invasion and a dying way of life. Isolation has produced at least 21 languages in Alaska alone, one of which became extinct recently with the death of the last native speaker of Eyak.