Groundbreaking study warns 1,500 endangered languages may become extinct by the end of the century

The Australian National University (ANU) led the study, uncovered factors that put endangered languages at risk.

According to co-author Professor Lindell Bromham, over half of the world’s 7,000 recognized languages are today endangered.

“We found that without immediate intervention, language loss could triple in the next 40 years. And by the end of this century, 1,500 languages could cease to be spoken.”

The study, published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, examines the most diverse set of factors yet implicated in the plight of endangered languages.

One finding was that the number of years of education enhanced the extent of linguistic endangerment. According to the researchers, this demonstrates the need of developing curricula that enable bilingual education, increasing both Indigenous language proficiency and the usage of regionally dominant languages.

“Across the 51 factors or predictors we investigated, we also found some really unexpected and surprising pressure points. This included road density,” said Professor Bromham.

“Contact with other local languages is not the problem. In fact, languages in contact with many other Indigenous languages tend to be less endangered.

“But we found that the more roads there are, connecting country to city, and villages to towns, the higher the risk of languages being endangered. It’s as if roads are helping dominant languages ‘steam roll’ smaller languages.”

The findings, according to the researchers, have important implications for the preservation of several of Australia’s endangered languages spoken by First Nations peoples.

“Australia has the dubious distinction of having one of the highest rates of language loss worldwide,” added Professor Felicity Meakins, one of the study’s co-authors.

“Prior to colonisation, more than 250 First Nationslanguages were spoken, and multilingualism was the norm. Now, only 40 languages are still spoken and just 12 are being learnt by children.

“First Nations languages need funding and support. Australia only spends $20.89 annually per capita of the Indigenous population on languages, which is abysmal compared with Canada’s $69.30 and New Zealand’s $296.44.”

Professor Bromham stated that as the world prepares to enter the UNESCO Decade of Indigenous Languages in 2022, the study’s findings serve as an important reminder that more work is urgently required to protect at-risk languages.

“When a language is lost, or is ‘Sleeping’ as we say for languages that are no longer spoken, we lose so much of our human cultural diversity. Every language is brilliant in its own way.

“Many of the languages predicted to be lost this century still have fluent speakers, so there is still the chance to invest in supporting communities to revitalise Indigenous languages and keep them strong for future generations.”

Source: 10.1038/s41559-021-01604-y

You were reading: Groundbreaking research warns: 1,500 endangered languages at high risk of being lost this century