Endangered languages- where does Spanish rank?

[Marianopolita]

Here is another good article posted in BBC Mundo about languages and the important patrimony that they are. What happens when a language is in danger of being extinct and what should be done to preserve disappearing languages?

There are many languages that have a handful of speakers left and once they are no longer around the languages will disappear as well. The article reveals some interesting statistics about a patrimony that maybe many take for granted. There's much that is done to preserve many important historic and cultural icons all over the world but what is being done to preserve languages?

Interesting points mentioned in the article:

* the way English is progressing, this language could end up phasing out (killing) the majority of other languages (Keeping in mind English is one of the top five spoken languages and is also a lingua franca)

* According to Ethnologue, a US organization that has formed a data base of world languages, 473 are classified as being in danger of disappearing.

* when a language dies so does the culture that goes along with it.

* More societies are giving up their language for others which they consider more beneficial such as English giving that they feel their children will not reach professional success by speaking their tribal language.

*if parents stop teaching their kids their cultural/ heritage language(s) they are breaking the connection between grandchildren and grandparents and traditional values of their culture.

* It's not too late to guarantee the survival of a minority language. The community in question can be the defenders of their language.

A key statement in the article that addresses the concern for minority languages:

"Por un lado, las comunidades más pobres, débiles y pequeñas están intentando llamar la atención sobre el problema; por otro, las grandes sociedades no tienen ni idea de ello"

BBC Mundo - Cultura y Sociedad - ¿Nos estamos quedando sin lenguas?


Stats from Ethnologue:

•El 94% de la población mundial habla sólo un 6% de todos los idiomas existentes.
•El más hablado, por población, es el mandarín (845 millones), seguido del español (329) y el inglés (328).
•Hay 133 lenguas que sólo las hablan 10 personas o menos en todo el mundo.

When I looked at the stats they looked extremely low especially for English and Spanish. Therefore, I decided to seek additional data for comparative purposes and I found a detailed linked that breaks down the stats by language and the number of native and second language speakers totals. In the case of English, it's the number of native, second language speakers (and it's a lingua franca + it's the language of world business etc.) which pushes the figure up to 510 million which I believe is quite accurate.


Coincidently these detailed stats are also from Ethnologue combined with other sources.

Top 30 Language Spoken in the World by Number of Speakers

UNESCO, the organization that is behind the preservation of heritage also has plenty detail on their site about languages as 'an intangible cultural heritage'.



-Marianopolita.

[Kyle]

take a good look at those official languages. whoever wrote this is very misinformed. for example, ethiopia official language is english ? it's Amharic. and Eritrea is Tigrinya not english.


boooooooo !!!

[Marianopolita]

Originally Posted by Kyle

take a good look at those official languages. whoever wrote this is very misinformed. for example, ethiopia official language is english ? it's Amharic. and Eritrea is Tigrinya not english.
....

There are many languages spoken in Ethiopia, English is one of them which can be verified in other sources. Even a small percentage of English speakers add to the greater group of speakers when looking at global totals. What I understood from the data even without specific clarification was that English is spoken there thus included in that category. Maybe for clarity purposes they should have separated the details with sub headings- official / non official.


Kyle,

You can always go to other sources which is what I did. This one may have what appears to be misinformation but the numbers are consistent with many other data references with reasonable variances.


This source indicates that English is the principal second language taught in schools.

Languages - Ethiopia


Any ideas on how to preserve disappearing languages as a cultural patrimony (luckily, Spanish is not at risk) which is the thread topic?



-Marianopolita.

[samanasuenos]

Any ideas on how to preserve disappearing languages as a cultural patrimony (luckily, Spanish is not at risk) which is the thread topic?

IDEA 1 a la Chavez...via Happy Hour!

Hmnn...I understand that Chavez was successful in preserving disappearing folk music by banning all other music on public radio, more or less.

Maybe there could be one hour every week, say a social hour, like Happy Hour, where everyone had to speak (or try to speak) a disappearing language. You would be forced to drink for each word in a non-disappearing language. And each bar could market a language of its chosing.

So, In the DR, I suppose - one bar could choose Taino, from 6-7pm on Friday night, and all Spanish speakers have to buy a drink for each word uttered...

I am NOT saying my idea would work in the DR. But it would likely work well with college students in North America.

IDEA 2:
You could petition schools to teach disappearing languages as electives, hold annual competitions, award prizes.

QUESTION
Aren't their non-profits that focus on this sort of preservation? I will go check.

Ciao, Sammy