The death of language?

By Tom Colls
Today programme

An estimated 7,000 languages are being spoken around the world. But that number is expected to shrink (tomber/s'effondrer) rapidly in the coming decades (décennies). What is lost when a language dies (mourir)?

In 1992 a prominent (très en vue) US linguist stunned (assommer) the academic world by predicting that by the year 2100, 90% of the world's languages would have ceased (cesser, finir) to exist.

Far from inspiring the world to act, the issue is still on the margins, according to (selon) prominent French linguist Claude Hagege.

"Most people are not at all interested in the death of languages," he says. "If we are not cautious (prudent) about the way English is progressing it may eventually kill most other languages."

According to Ethnologue, a US organisation owned by Christian group SIL International that compiles (établir) a global (mondial) database of languages, 473 languages are currently classified as endangered.

Among the ranks are the two known speakers of Lipan Apache alive in the US, four speakers of Totoro in Colombia and the single Bikya speaker in Cameroon.

"It is difficult to provide (fournir) an accurate (précis) count," says Ethnologue editor Paul Lewis. "But we are at a tipping (critique) point. From here on we are going to increasingly (de plus en plus) see the number of languages going down."

What is lost?

As globalisation (mondialisation) sweeps (s'étendre) around the world, it is perhaps natural that small communities come out of their isolation and seek interaction with the wider world. The number of languages may be an unhappy casualty (victime), but why fight the tide (vague)?

WAR OF WORDS

• 6% of the world's languages are spoken by 94% of the world's population

• The remaining (qui restent) 94% of languages are spoken by only 6% of the population

• The largest single language by population is Mandarin (845 million speakers) followed by Spanish (329 million speakers) and English (328 million speakers).

• 133 languages are spoken by fewer than 10 people SOURCE: Ethnologue

"What we lose is essentially an enormous cultural heritage, the way of expressing the relationship with nature, with the world, between themselves in the framework (structure/cadre) of their families" says Mr Hagege.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/today/hi/today/newsid_8311000/8311069.stm

Published: 2009/10/19 08:10:06 GMT

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