All experts agree that each language is directly linked with the culture of the people who speak that language. They also state that culture is closely associated with the knowledge in various fields like medicine, engineering, and literature. When a language dies, our access to the collective wisdom of the people who speak that language dies also.

     The importance of this issue is understood globally by many Organizations and Governments. Linguists have come forward and are now working for the preservation of minority and endangered languages. The areas of concentration needed to achieve the goal of saving endangered languages are as follows:

  1. Encouraging younger generations to learn and speak ethnic languages.

  2. Using the Internet to generate public awareness.

  3. Making use of digital technology to record and store languages and other written documents.

  4. Collecting and storing the maximum possible information in the form of a data bank and making that information available to all.

     More and more people around the globe are becoming aware of this problem. Let us look at a list of a few organizations performing this remarkable work. UNESCO (United Nations Educational and Scientific and Cultural Organization) is in the forefront by onducting international conventions, assisting nations in creating and reforming laws for the protection of ethnic religious and linguistic minorities. In November of 1999 UNESCO's General Conference proclaimed International Mother Language Day. This day has been observed every year since February 2000 to promote cultural and linguistic diversity. On 16 May 2007, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 2008 to be the International Year of Languages. Since language issues are central to UNESCO’s mandate in education, science, culture, and communication, this organization was named the lead agency for this event.

     Another organization which is dedicated to saving languages is SIL (Summer Institute of Linguistics), International. Their language research has produced about 20,000 citations and could also publish many of books about language and culture to assist education and research. ‘Ogmios’ is a foundation whose efforts work to identity, support, document, protect and promote endangered languages. There are many organizations working towards saving languages, but languages are disappearing faster than these efforts can manage to preserve them.

     So what does this mean? Adverse circumstances have caused languages to disappear. The best solution is to reverse those circumstances so that everyone learns more than one language. Let us work together to create a global garden having lots of language flowers in that garden.

     Please let me share something personal in this regard before I conclude. Until now I have studied in four different schools by virtue of my father’s official transfers. During this time I stayed in different states of India and studied FIVE languages. Out of the five, three were a part of the school curriculum and I am proud of the government of India’s education policies.

~Abhiram~

Sources:

 “Language Preservation. portal.unesco.org. Accessed16 March 2009. <http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php- URL_ID=11171&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC &URL_SECTION=201.html>16

Ethnologue. ethnologue.com. Accessed16 March 2009. < http://www.ethnologue.com>
“Aims”. Foundation for Endangered Languages. ogmios.org. Accessed 16 March. 2009.  <http://www.ogmios.org/home.htm >

Picture Source:

United Nations Photo. “United Nations Telecommunications Satellite Dish”. 26 February 2009. Flickr.com. Accessed16 March 2009. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/bk/1359918461>
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