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Feb 22, 2016
Opinion & features

Endangered languages around the world

Source: Oxford University Press
Story flagged by: Paula Durrosier

International Mother Language Day was first announced by UNESCO in 1999 to ‘promote the preservation and protection of all languages used by peoples of the world’. It has, since then, been observed every year on 21 February. For this occasion, we have created an infographic about endangered languages around the globe, with particular focus on Europe and the UK. All the data presented in the graphic comes from the UNESCO – if you would like to explore the topic in more detail, you can do so on their website. More.

See: Oxford University Press

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Comments about this article


Endangered languages around the world
Frank Auteri (X)
Frank Auteri (X)  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 16:00
English to Italian
+ ...
Endangered Languages, An Interesting Lead by, or rather Back to UNESCO Feb 28, 2016

Thank you for flagging this post Paula. It brought back memories of traveling through many of the back-woods areas of Italy where many people still speak the local dialects which are very distinct from what is considered the grammatically correct Italian taught in public schools since the 1930's. In addition to the lack of script for many languages, the question of validating dialectical languages is further obscured and complicated by the introduction of colloquialisms, colorful analogies, simi... See more
Thank you for flagging this post Paula. It brought back memories of traveling through many of the back-woods areas of Italy where many people still speak the local dialects which are very distinct from what is considered the grammatically correct Italian taught in public schools since the 1930's. In addition to the lack of script for many languages, the question of validating dialectical languages is further obscured and complicated by the introduction of colloquialisms, colorful analogies, similes, and maxims that exist throughout the world. NPR ran a story of a group trying to record a number of dialects before they completely vanished. Of course this has also been done in the Americas where a very large number of American Indian tribal languages have vanished over the recent decades. Thanks for flagging this article. ▲ Collapse
 
Balasubramaniam L.
Balasubramaniam L.  Identity Verified
India
Local time: 02:30
Member (2006)
English to Hindi
+ ...
I would add English to the list Feb 29, 2016

The folksy English that was once the mother tongue of many people in Britain is seriously under threat of extinction, as the language crosses new linguistic boundaries by the day as it internationalizes itslef. What most people understand as English today would hardly be recognized as such by the real natives of this language residing in remote, civilization-untouched (read internet-unpolluted) areas of Britain, the homeland of English. So this unlikely candidate should receive special attention... See more
The folksy English that was once the mother tongue of many people in Britain is seriously under threat of extinction, as the language crosses new linguistic boundaries by the day as it internationalizes itslef. What most people understand as English today would hardly be recognized as such by the real natives of this language residing in remote, civilization-untouched (read internet-unpolluted) areas of Britain, the homeland of English. So this unlikely candidate should receive special attention from UNESCO to preserve it from extinction and being swamped out of existence by Indian, Chinese, Pakistani, Australian, American and Bangladeshi speakers, among others, of this language. ▲ Collapse
 
Ty Kendall
Ty Kendall  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:00
Hebrew to English
Tell me more.... Feb 29, 2016

Balasubramaniam L. wrote:
remote, civilization-untouched (read internet-unpolluted) areas of Britain, the homeland of English


...about these "remote, civilization-untouched (read internet-unpolluted) areas of Britain" ???
 
Balasubramaniam L.
Balasubramaniam L.  Identity Verified
India
Local time: 02:30
Member (2006)
English to Hindi
+ ...
Oh, they no longer exist, do they? Feb 29, 2016

Ty Kendall wrote:

Balasubramaniam L. wrote:
remote, civilization-untouched (read internet-unpolluted) areas of Britain, the homeland of English


...about these "remote, civilization-untouched (read internet-unpolluted) areas of Britain" ???


In that case, mother-tongue English definitely needs to be put at the top of the list of languages going extint, provided it has not already gone dead, and cannot be revived!
 
Ty Kendall
Ty Kendall  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:00
Hebrew to English
Well I'm asking you... Feb 29, 2016

...you seem to know so much about these places, I was hoping you could at least name them.
 
Frank Auteri (X)
Frank Auteri (X)  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 16:00
English to Italian
+ ...
Worth noting that Latin was not listed at all? Mar 3, 2016

Anyone remember how over the last century we were all told that English was the fastest growing language in the world by number of speakers,
number of words being added to the dictionary daily. Remember all those vocabulary building tests in grade school and high school? How often has anyone used the word "loquacious" in every day speech since then? Colloquial? How 'bout in everyday writing?

Anyone? Anyone? Ferris?
 
INSTRKTIV
INSTRKTIV
Germany
Local time: 23:00
Frisian Mar 4, 2016

Googling a bit I see that my language, Dutch, is considered in many lists as a weird language. In the Netherlands, there is also a co-official language in the province of Friesland, called 'Fries' or 'Frisian' in English. Frisian is spoken by 453,000 speakers wikipedia says. Would you say that is an endangered number?
 

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