People are forced to adopt the dominant language or risk being left out in the cold
- Tatsuya Amano
New research shows economic growth to be main driver of language extinction and reveals global ‘hotspots’ where languages are most under threat.
The study’s authors urge for “immediate attention” to be paid to hotspots in the most developed countries – such as north Australia and the north-western corners of the US and Canada – where conservation efforts should be focused.
They also point to areas of the tropics and Himalayan regions that are undergoing rapid economic growth as future hotspots for language extinction, such as Brazil and Nepal.
The study is published in the journal Proceedings of Royal Society B.
The researchers used the criteria for defining endangered species to measure rate and prevalence of language loss, as defined by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The three main risk components are: small population size (small number of speakers), small geographical habitat range and population change – in this case, the decline in speaker numbers.
By interrogating huge language datasets using these conservation mechanisms, the researchers found that levels of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) per capita correlated with the loss of language diversity: the more successful economically, the more rapidly language diversity was disappearing.
“As economies develop, one language often comes to dominate a nation’s political and educational spheres. People are forced to adopt the dominant language or risk being left out in the cold – economically and politically,” said Dr Tatsuya Amato, from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology.
“Of course everyone has the right to choose the language they speak, but preserving dying language is important to maintaining human cultural diversity in an increasingly globalised world.”
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Image:The Emberá people of the Baudó river, whose language (Emberá-Baudó) is classified as threatened
Credit: Rodrigo Camara Leret, Section for Ecoinformatics & Biodiversity, Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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