The Lost Words

“Language is the roadmap of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going” – Rita Mae Brown

Language - The meaningful union between letters and words forms the most beautiful means of human communication. Mankind varies in their culture, lifestyle, looks, and language. People differ from each other owing to their geographical locations. One of the determinants of human physiognomy has always been language.

Language is an important part of our identity. There are around 7000+ languages in the world. But sadly, nearly 41% of them are nearly endangered. As per a trusted report, 96% of the world languages are spoken by only 4% of the world population. Almost all minority languages of the world are becoming endangered and since language, is an essential carrier of culture, history, and tradition of any place, the death of a language imposes tremendous harm to the future of diversified world cultures.

UNESCO has undergone thorough research on various languages that have become extinct and also on those who are listed as endangered. “UNESCO’s Atlas of the world language in danger (2010) categories 2500 languages in 5 levels of endangerment- unsafe, definitely endangered, severely endangered, critically endangered, and extinct.” More than 200 languages over the world have become extinct in the last few generations, and sadly the number is going to increase as time passes.

The hegemony of a few languages over all other indigenous languages is responsible for their deaths. We have tried to throw light upon a few endangered languages around the world. When a language is spoken by less than 1000 people, then it is labeled as an ‘Endangered language’.

The Lost Words!

Many of these endangered languages are spoken by only one speaker. In Nepal, indigenous languages like Dura, Tillung, and Kusunda are in the category of critically endangered as they have only one speaker left.  The situation in India is even more alarming, as India has the most number of endangered languages in the world. There are around 197 endangered languages in India and most of these belong to the varied tribal groups in the country. Linguistic researchers opine that ‘Majhi’ language of Sikkim, is the most endangered one since it is only spoken by four people of the same family and will die soon if not propagated further. Other languages in this category are - ‘Mahali’ of East India, ‘Koro’ of Arunachal Pradesh, ‘Dimasa’ of Assam, ‘Sidi’ of Gujarat, and so on. Many other languages are also in the critically endangered group. 

The primary reason for language extinction are government policies which never wanted to include these regional languages in the main education and social policies. To imbibe a spirit of nationalism, one or two dominant languages are being encouraged to study right from the school level. As a result to which the next generation tends to ignore their indigenous languages and gain expertise in one or two languages. Rise of widespread ‘English’ language usage, thanks to the colonial hangover, and also the need to introduce a common language for ease of countrywide communication led to the rise of the ‘Hindi’ language.

However, the ‘three language’ policy, introduced by the National Education Policy in India to boost learning of native and regional languages, is commendable.         

Like many Asian countries, North American countries like Canada and USA have also lost many languages, belonging to their native tribes and a few have become endangered as well. Out of the 300 native languages in the USA before European colonization, only 197 languages remain today. Also according to a survey, among them, only 20 indigenous language languages will survive till 2050.

Imagine, the cultural identity loss that accompanies the extinct languages of the world. Future generations will be unaware of so many beautiful words and expressions. Much of this tragedy is a direct result of the colonization of British rule, which has mercilessly oppressed and led to the extinction of many native languages for their ease of governance in different countries.

Losing a language comes with the loss of culture and tradition of a place. Nowadays children in most of the big cities in India, prefer to speak in English and not in their respective mother tongues like Bengali or Tamil. Parents also feel proud of the inability of their children to speak or read in their native languages. This is heartbreaking since it is through language that we revive and preserve the history, culture, traditions, and practices of a community. Doesn’t this diversity make us, the humans unique?  We are losing so much by neglecting our mother tongue. Although many organizations and communities across the world are trying to negate this blunder by preserving the dialects and words through dictionaries and various forms of writing, but since language is essentially meant to be spoken, if the number of people using the language orally doesn’t increase, it ultimately does not yield much fruitful results.

We must all try to save and revive our lost words so that the diversity of mankind is not put to threat. Although a common communication language like English is essential, parallelly learning and preserving indigenous languages is of utmost importance.

Let us all pledge to read, speak, write and be proud of our individual mother tongues and let us break free from the hegemonical dominance of a few so-called superior languages.