Does Anyone Care That The World Loses A Language Every 90 Days?

 

 

Did you know that although there are a little over 200 nations in the world, there are nearly 7,000 spoken languages?  

Further, did you know that only a few million out of eight billion people speak more than 90% of those languages? 

However, some experts believe 50-50% of these languages are endangered. Within the next century, 400 languages could be dormant. Does it matter?  

The world’s super languages are English, Spanish, Mandarin, Chinese, Arabic, Hindi, Bengali, Portuguese, Russian, and Japanese. Hundreds of millions, even over a billion people, may speak one or more of these languages daily.   

One language becomes dormant every 90 days in the world. What, if anything, does the world lose when a language ceases to be used?  

Endangered Languages by Evangelia Adamou tells an interesting story about the subject of lost languages. The book notes that nearly a third of all languages in the world are spoken on the African continent. The largest language family there is Atlantic-Congo, compromising 1,300 languages that 600 million people speak. We see just how tribal Africa is, from language to warring factions.   

There are plenty of languages spoken by so few people that more people know made-up languages like Star Trek’s Klingon. For example, in North America and Mesoamerica, 45 languages have fewer than 100 users. Another 70 have fewer than 10 language users. That may come down to just one family.   

Why do languages die out?  

“The formation of modern nation-states created the conditions for language shift to the dominant languages through mass monolingual education,” says the book.   

It also notes that wars and pandemics can change things.   

“European colonization led to the death pf millions of indigenous people and disrupted intergenerational language transmission by the forced removal of children from their families and more generally by devaluing Indigenous languages,” writes Adamou.   

So, why does it matter if a language is no longer used? Isn’t it better if we all speak the same language or just a handful of languages? 

Well, language is culture, and language loss means a loss of culture, even knowledge.  

Amadou notes: “Languages are important for health and wellbeing, as they help preserve the cultural pride and practical knowledge that come from singing them…From the perspective of western science, failing to embrace language diversity means failing to understand how human languages are used and how they represent the world.” 

In conclusion, according to Amadou’s findings, 88% of the world’s languages have virtually no internet presence and no language technologies at all. This means some one billion speakers of languages like Bora, Dahalo, Popoloca, Warlpiri, and Willisian can’t be found online. 

Indeed, most of the content on the Net is just a few global or official state languages. Endangered languages are virtually missing a digital footprint and will likely die out over the coming centuries.   

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About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2024. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully).  This award-winning blog has generated over 3.9 million pageviews. With 5,000+ posts over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” For the past three decades, including 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and director of publicity positions at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler. He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.