Languages are one of the greatest emblems of human diversity, revealing just how astonishingly differently it’s possible for human beings to perceive, relate to, and make sense of the world. They are also the finest libraries in existence, in which we find the collective history, knowledge, mythology, and perceptions of an entire people. But this diversity is being lost at an alarming rate. Some experts would go as far as saying that 90% of the world’s languages are at risk of disappearing.
But why does the loss of indigenous languages matter? Read on to find out why Indigenous languages are fundamental to understanding the world we live in, who we really are and what humans are capable of…
Languages die because people stop speaking them: due to social pressures, demographic change and external forces. Colonisation, and the globalised capitalism it subsequently spawned, has perhaps been the greatest murderer of languages in human history, and this legacy is alive and well in the present. Survival International is campaigning against Factory Schools, which actively contribute to language death by teaching tribal children not in their mother tongue, but only in the dominant dialect or the official language of the state. This systematic cultural erasure threatens the lives of millions of children, their families, indigenous communities, and the survival of languages around the globe. Our campaign against Factory Schooling will launch later this year; sign up to our mailing list for updates.
