We are currently witnessing a terrible human tragedy. A recent NY Times article brought attention to the frighteningly rapid speed at which human languages all over the world are going extinct. A rate "that exceeds that of birds, mammals, fish and plants."
Yes there are many terrible things going on in the world (Darfur, Iraq, Jena 6, Global Warming) and how can we prioritize them? For me, this is now NUMBER ONE. I'm not going to begin to talk about what a loss a human language is to the world, it's a huge loss and I'll leave it at that. What's even more tragic is that this doesn't have to happen. We can preserve these languages easily. And yes again, it would be better if they remained living, but there will be no way to keep them alive or (more likely) revive them if we don't know them.
The article reports on work being done by researchers to preserve these languages. There aren't enough people working on this! They've already reported langauges extinct before they had a chance to be preserved.
How can we help? I'm not sure yet. My immediate thought is how collaborative technologies like the internet could be used to more efficiently aid in the recording of theses languages. Something like Wikipedia provides a good example to get the ideas flowing.
And of course I'm sure money is an issue. This is work I want to be a part of. I can feel the urgency. I am going to do more research and will report ways individuals can get involved to stop this from happening!
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