The UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger was an online publication containing a comprehensive list of the world's endangered languages. It originally replaced the Red Book of Endangered Languages as a title in print after a brief period of overlap before being transferred to an online-only publication.
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In 1992, the International Congress of Linguists (CIPL) meeting in Canada discussed the topic of endangered languages, as a result of which it formed the Endangered Languages Committee. It held an international meeting also in 1992 in Paris to place the topic before the world and initiate action. The meeting was considered important enough to come under the authority of UNESCO.
At the instigation of Stephen Wurm the committee resolved to create a research center, the International Clearing House for Endangered Languages (ICHEL) and to publish the UNESCO Red Book of Endangered Languages based on the data it collected, the title being derived from that of the Red Book of Endangered Species. Shigeru Tsuchida was to start the research center. It began in 1994 at the University of Tokyo with Tasaka Tsunoda as its director.
Meanwhile, the initial reports on endangered languages had already been collected and submitted to UNESCO by regional experts in 1993. [1] These have since been turned over to ICHEL, which created a website to enable regularly updates to be made available promptly.
In February 2009, UNESCO launched an online edition [2] of the Atlas of Endangered Languages which covers the whole world, contains much more information than previous printed editions and offers the possibility to users to provide online feedback, in view of its constant updating. [3]
The UNESCO list has 6 categories of endangerment: [4]
An endangered language or moribund language is a language that is at risk of disappearing as its speakers die out or shift to speaking other languages. Language loss occurs when the language has no more native speakers and becomes a "dead language". If no one can speak the language at all, it becomes an "extinct language". A dead language may still be studied through recordings or writings, but it is still dead or extinct unless there are fluent speakers. Although languages have always become extinct throughout human history, they are currently dying at an accelerated rate because of globalization, mass migration, cultural replacement, imperialism, neocolonialism and linguicide.
Pakistan is a multilingual country with over 70 languages spoken as first languages. The majority of Pakistan's languages belong to the Indo-Iranian group of the Indo-European language family.
Western Armenian is one of the two standardized forms of Modern Armenian, the other being Eastern Armenian. It is based mainly on the Istanbul Armenian dialect, as opposed to Eastern Armenian, which is mainly based on the Yerevan Armenian dialect.
Language revitalization, also referred to as language revival or reversing language shift, is an attempt to halt or reverse the decline of a language or to revive an extinct one. Those involved can include linguists, cultural or community groups, or governments. Some argue for a distinction between language revival and language revitalization. There has only been one successful instance of a complete language revival: that of the Hebrew language.
Champenois is a Romance language among the langues d'oïl spoken by a minority of people in Champagne and Île-de-France provinces in France, as well as in a handful of towns in southern Belgium.
The Gutob or Bodo Gadaba language is a south Munda language of the Austroasiatic language family of India, with the greatest concentrations of speakers being found in Koraput district of Odisha and Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh. It is also known simply as the Gadaba language, but it is different from the Dravidian Gadaba language. Other names for the Bodo Gadaba language include Gadba, Gutop, Gudwa, Godwa, Gadwa, and Boi Gadaba.
Ona, also known as Selk'nam (Shelknam), is a language spoken by the Selk'nam people in Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego in southernmost South America.
Language preservation is the preservation of endangered or dead languages. With language death, studies in linguistics, anthropology, prehistory and psychology lose diversity. As history is remembered with the help of historic preservation, language preservation maintains dying or dead languages for future studies in such fields. Organizations such as 7000 Languages and the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages document and teach endangered languages as a way of preserving languages. Sometimes parts of languages are preserved in museums, such as tablets containing Cuneiform writing from Mesopotamia. Additionally, dictionaries have been published to help keep record of languages, such as the Kalapuya dictionary published by the Siletz tribe in Oregon.
Orang Kanaq is one of the Malayic languages, grouped under the Austronesian languages. It is spoken by the Orang Kanaq, one of the 19 Orang Asli groups in Peninsular Malaysia. The language is believed to have been extinct since the 1950s according to the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.
Inga Kichwa is a dialect of Kichwa spoken in the Colombian Putumayo region by the Inga people. There are two dialects: Highland Inga, spoken in the Sibundoy valley; and Jungle Inga, spoken on the Putumayo and Japurá Rivers.
The Birhor language is a highly endangered Munda language spoken by the Birhor people in Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal, and Maharashtra states in India.
Logorik, Subori, or Saburi is a (critically) endangered language spoken in Eastern Sudan and Western Chad.
Tarao, Taraotrong or Tarau is an unclassified Tibeto-Burman language of India. It is marginally (70%) intelligible with Chothe. The speakers of this language use Meitei language as their second language (L2) according to the Ethnologue.
Tangam is an endangered Sino-Tibetan language of the Tani subgroup spoken in Arunachal Pradesh state in North-East India. The total number of Tangam speakers has been alternatively estimated at 150 and 253. The primary Tangam village is Kuging [kugɨŋ], which is located at 28°57'22"N and 94°59'25"E, approximately four hours' walk from Tuting in Upper Siang district. Tangam speakers are also found in some neighbouring villages, as well as in Tuting town.
“Endangered Languages.” CIPL, 14 Jan. 2021, ciplnet.com/endangered-languages/. Accessed 11 Apr. 2024.