Study: 1500 languages ​​in the world are threatened with extinction

1500 languages ​​out of the 7000 known around the world are facing the threat of extinction, according to a study prepared in Australia.

The study indicated that about half of all known languages ​​are in danger, and that 1,500 of them may become extinct by the end of the century.

The authors of the study warned that if no intervention was made, the loss of languages ​​may triple within forty years, with the loss of one language, at least per month.. They recommended the preparation of curricula that support bilingual education, while encouraging the mastery of indigenous languages, and the use of languages ​​prevalent at the regional level. .

The study includes analysis of 51 independent variables, including educational policies, socio-economic indicators, and environmental characteristics.

The results of the study, which was supervised by the National University of Australia, were published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.

Co-author Lindell Brumham said the study showed unexpected and surprising reasons for the threats faced by languages.

These reasons include a well-developed road network, for example.

"We concluded that the more roads there are that connect the countryside and villages to the cities, the greater the risks that languages ​​face. It is as if the roads are helping the dominant languages ​​to trample the smaller ones," Brumham explained.

In contrast, the problem is not with the communication between local languages, the languages ​​that do communicate with other indigenous languages ​​face less risk.

The study also includes lessons on how to preserve indigenous languages, which are in danger of extinction in Australia.

"Australia has the questionable difference of having one of the highest rates of language loss in the world," said study co-author Felicity Meakins, adding that of the country's 250 indigenous languages ​​once spoken, only 40 remain.

Basically, children only learn 12 languages ​​from it.

"When a language dies out, or goes 'sleeping', as we describe languages ​​that are no longer used, we lose a lot of human cultural diversity...Each language is brilliant in its own way," Brumham explained.

He explained that many of the languages ​​that are expected to die out during this decade, are still actively used at the present time.

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