Author: The Associated Press
Publication: The New York Times
Date: February 20, 2002
About half of the world's 6,000
languages are under threat of disappearing under pressure from more dominant
tongues or repressive government policies, a new study says.
From France and Russia to the Americas
and Australia, minority languages and the heritage that goes along with
them are at risk of dying out, according to a UNESCO study to be released
Thursday.
"Today, at least 3,000 tongues are
endangered, seriously endangered or dying in many parts of the world,"
said a statement by the Paris-based United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization.
"With the death and disappearance
of ... a language, an irreplaceable unit in our knowledge and understanding
of human thought and world-view is lost forever."
The 90-page study, "Atlas of the
World's Languages in Danger of Disappearing," said the Americas and Australia
had the worst record. In Australia, hundreds of Aboriginal languages are
now extinct as a result of harsh assimilation policies in place until the
1970s.
"In the United States, less than
150 Indian languages have survived out of several hundreds that were spoken
before the arrival of the Europeans," the study said, adding that discrimination
lessened in the 1970s but English-only policies increased with a wave of
conservatism in the 1980s.
The study identifies "crisis areas"
such as Taiwan, where more than half of the 23 local languages "are yielding
to the pressures of Chinese," and New Caledonia, where French has replaced
regional tongues.
It also lists about 50 languages
at risk in Europe, including 14 languages in France and several of the
Saami or Lappish tongues spoken in Scandinavia and northern Russia.
According to the study, a native
language can disappear when its speakers relocate and are required to speak
the dominant tongue to get a job and function in the new society, or because
they confront a more aggressive or economically stronger culture.
In Asia, the study says, the situation
for minority languages "is uncertain in many parts of China" due to pressure
from authorities. Linguistic diversity, however, is thriving in the Pacific
region -- which includes Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia and Papua New
Guinea -- which accounts for more than 2,000 living languages, or a third
of the world total.
Widespread bilingual or multilingual
government policies on the Indian subcontinent have helped keep local languages
alive there, and some tongues have even been resurrected through intensive
revival campaigns -- including Cornish in southern England and the Ainu
language in Japan, the study said.
In Africa, roughly 550 of the 1,400
local languages are on the decline, with 250 of those under immediate threat.