Diversity endangered
There are estimated to be some 6,000 languages still in existence in the world. According to UNESCO:
Over 50% of the estimated 6,000 languages in the world are endangered.
96% of the world's 6,000 languages are spoken by 4% of the world's population.
90% of the world's languages are not represented on the Internet.
One language disappears on average every two weeks.
80% of the African languages have no orthography.
When you read these statistics, you realise that the average person's grasp of the size and range of languages spoken in the world borders on ignorance.
UNESCO has an Endangered Languages Programme which aims to promote and safeguard endangered languages and linguistic diversity. Without this protection, significant heritage is at risk of being lost forever.
Why make the effort? With each language lost, some of the cultural knowledge of a people is lost with it. A language will become endangered when its community uses it less or its uses become restricted to certain domains or when it is no longer passed on through the generations. The reasons for this are numerous: economic, religious, cultural, military etc. There may be pressures on a community, both internal or external, to change their linguistic tradition.
The Internet has an important role to play in the preservation of language as a primary vector of communication, knowledge and information. A huge population is excluded from technological, social and cultural information which might benefit them as a society because they are without access to or unable to use their own language on the Internet.
The unique patois of Norfolk Island in the South Pacific whose inhabitants are descended from HMS Bounty mutineers is an excellent example, as reported by the Telegraph newspaper recently. The language spoken there is a blend of 18th-century English and Tahitian, known as Norf'k or Norfuk.
Now part of Australia, Norfolk Island, although fiercely proud of its identity, has felt its language under pressure. The influence of Australian and New Zealand TV as well as island incomers all play a part.
Having been considered something of an embarrassing patois in the past, the language is now receiving support – from adults interested in their roots to children taught the language by way of nursery rhymes and word games in school. Significantly, the islanders now have the backing of UNESCO and Norfuk is due to be listed the next edition of its "Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger of Disappearing".