What's your path for a Culture of Peace?
LANGUAGE PRESERVATION

"We may have different religions, different languages, different colored skin, but we all belong to one human race." -- Kofi Annan

You probably know that many of the world's plants and animals are in danger of extinction, but did you know that many human languages are in danger of becoming extinct, too?

Globalization has helped to make the world a smaller place. But it has also contributed to the loss of many languages around the world. Now only 10 languages make up over half the world population's mother languages. Once there were about 8000 different languages spoken on our planet. Now there are only about 6500, and half of them are endangered. In fact, every two weeks another language disappears forever!

Languages are important. They do much more than help people communicate. A language helps define a culture, history and ancestry of a group of people. Once a language is lost, humanity loses a part of our rich culture and heritage. Helping to preserve endangered languages is important to keep traditions alive.

UNESCO promotes events and activities on International Mother Language Day on February 21 to help encourage the recognition and celebration of the diverse heritage of humanity's mother tongues, especially minority ones, and to raise awareness about the need to preserve endangered languages. The Day provides a wonderful opportunity to discover and celebrate the rich diversity of languages spoken in our own communities.

Other Links

UNESCO's International Mother Language Day site

United Nations:
UN's Dag Hammarskjold Library links
UN Works for Cultural Diversity: Language

Organizations
Ethnologue - an encylcopedia of the 6912 living languages
Foundation for Endangered Languages
Modern Language Association
The Rosetta Project - building an archive of ALL human languages
SIL International
Terralingua

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Kofi Annan

Noam Chomsky

John Denver

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Aldous Huxley

Henry David Thoreau

Mark Twain

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