A weekly online presentation was given to the English Department staff by Dr. Muhammad Abdul Qadir Saed, a staff member at the department, on Monday 14th of December on (8 Endangered Languages That Could Soon Disappear
BY KAITLYN BOETTCHER JUNE 6, 2013). Endangered is a word we usually associate with animal species, but some languages, too, are dying breeds. There are over 6000 languages spoken in the world today, but many are at risk of becoming extinct and forgotten. It is estimated that if language decline continues as it has been, half of the world’s languages could be wiped off the map by the end of this century. While some languages that are considered endangered still have thousands of speakers trying to keep them alive, other languages have become confined to single villages and still others to single people.
The Catalogue of Endangered Languages, or ELCat, is a project that has been launched by the Alliance for Linguistic Diversity to raise awareness of the drastic loss of language that is currently taking place across the globe. While many of these languages are likely past the point of salvation in terms of everyday use, the ELCat and other, similar organizations can still offer ways to preserve these languages so that we can continue to respect and learn from linguistic diversity. Irish Gaelic, Krymchak, Okanagan-Colville, Ts’ixa, Ainu, Rapa Nui, Yagan, and Saami are the 8 Endangered languages that could soon disappear.