Wednesday 27 June 2012

The Endangered Languages Project


Humanity today is facing a massive extinction: languages are disappearing at an unprecedented pace. Experts estimate that only 50% of the languages that are alive today will be spoken by the year 2100. And when that happens, a unique vision of the world is lost. With every language that dies we lose an enormous cultural heritage.

The Endangered Languages Project is an online resource to record, access, and share samples of and research on endangered languages, as well as to share advice and best practices for those working to document or strengthen languages under threat.

1 comment(s):

Gareth said...

The people compiling that list have very little idea. They classify Irish the same as Cornish. Irish Gaelic is actively taught in schools, there are areas (gaeltacht) where the language is officially protected. People living there need to be able to speak and read the language as it is used in an official capacity. There are still plenty of people in the republic who speak Irish as their first language.

Cornish on the other hand has no such support. Hardly anybody speaks it and it would be all but impossible to use it as your first language on a day to day basis.

Irish (or if you must Irish Gaelic) is probably in a better state than Welsh, however Welsh doesn't even make the list.