![]() ![]() The cultural remnants of those speakers have faded as well. Even languages of ancient empires like Sumerian and Egyptian became extinct centuries ago, leaving only inscriptions as faint reminders of their existence. In the past 500 years, approximately half of the world's known languages have vanished. Even with modern scientific tools, most of the world's languages remain shrouded in mystery, making it impossible to accurately quantify the loss that occurs when a language disappears. The death of a language is an unparalleled event in human history. A language is deemed extinct when there are no second-language speakers left and no written form of the language remains." Shaolee Mahbub, professor of anthropology at Jagannath University, says, "The death of a language in linguistic terms refers to the unique situation when a language loses its final 'native' or 'local' speaker. But what happens when the words themselves cease to exist? When the language we used to express our feelings is lost? What becomes of our ability to convey that sense of loss? Will our tongues be rendered silent, or will a new voice emerge in its place? In our daily parlance, the phrase "stopping a voice" is a metaphor for death. "Many of the languages predicted to be lost this century still have fluent speakers, so there is still the chance to invest in supporting communities to revitalize indigenous languages and keep them strong for future generations.Comforting someone who has lost a loved one can be difficult, and even more so when the right words are hard to find. Every language is brilliant in its own way. "When a language is lost, or is 'Sleeping' as we say for languages that are no longer spoken, we lose so much of our human cultural diversity. Professor Bromham said that as the world enters the UNESCO Decade of Indigenous Languages in 2022, the study's findings were a vital reminder that more action was urgently needed to preserve at-risk languages. Australia only spends $20.89 annually per capita of the Indigenous population on languages, which is abysmal compared with Canada's $69.30 and New Zealand's $296.44." "First Nations languages need funding and support. Now, only 40 languages are still spoken and just 12 are being learnt by children. "Prior to colonization, more than 250 First Nations languages were spoken, and multilingualism was the norm. "Australia has the dubious distinction of having one of the highest rates of language loss worldwide," Professor Felicity Meakins, from the University of Queensland and one of the study's co-authors, said. ![]() The researchers say the findings also have important lessons for preserving many of the endangered languages spoken by Australia's First Nations peoples. It's as if roads are helping dominant languages 'steam roll' over other smaller languages." "But we found that the more roads there are, connecting country to city, and villages to towns, the higher the risk of languages being endangered. "Contact with other local languages is not the problem-in fact languages in contact with many other Indigenous languages tend to be less endangered. This included road density," Professor Bromham said. "Across the 51 factors or predictors we investigated, we also found some really unexpected and surprising pressure points. The researchers say it shows we need to build curricula that support bilingual education, fostering both indigenous language proficiency as well as use of regionally-dominant languages. One finding was that more years of schooling increased the level of language endangerment. Published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, they study charts the widest range of factors ever putting endangered languages under pressure. And by the end of this century, 1,500 languages could cease to be spoken." "We found that without immediate intervention, language loss could triple in the next 40 years. The study, led by The Australian National University (ANU), identified predictors that put endangered languages at high risk.Ĭo-author Professor Lindell Bromham said that of the world's 7,000 recognized languages, around half were currently endangered. ![]()
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