Around 1,500 endangered and rare languages are at a high risk of being lost in the next century, according to a study published on Thursday in Nature Ecology and Evolution.
The study found that around half of the world’s 7,000 documented languages are endangered. It also found that greater road density was associated with higher risk of endangerment.
“It’s as if roads are helping dominant languages overwhelm other smaller languages,” co-author and professor at the Australian National University Lindell Bromham said in a press release.
Greater endangerment was also associated with higher average years of schooling, suggesting that formal education contributes to loss of language diversity. “Mainstream education in a dominant language can lead to loss of competence in minority languages. We urgently need to invest in bilingual (双语的) education and develop programs that allow communities to bring their heritage language into schools, to make sure the language stays strong and is passed on to future generations,” Bromhall told CBS News.
The study found that unless there is intervention (干预), the world could lose at least one language per month, with language loss three times more in the next 40 years. The authors recommended “urgent investment” in community-based programs like bilingual education programs and language documentation. And some of the recommendations that experts made 20 years ago are still the same: governments should remove bans on languages and adults should encourage children to speak other languages — including their native language.
“Each language is a reflection on the creativity and inventiveness of human minds, a beautiful and fascinating solution to complex communication challenges,” Bromham told CBS News. “Most importantly, for many people, language symbolizes cultural identity and belonging. Many groups mourn (悼念) the decline of unique languages and long for competency in languages no longer spoken.”
【小题1】What was related with higher risk of language endangerment?| A．Less road density. |
| B．Unpopularity among language learners. |
| C．Greater competence of small languages. |
| D．Higher average years of schooling. |
| A．Stop bans on languages. |
| B．Create more language education programs. |
| C．Put more investment in language research. |
| D．Encourage people to speak other languages. |
| A．Investment is needed in bilingual education. |
| B．Language loss results in mainstream education. |
| C．Half of the world’s current languages are lost. |
| D．Dominant languages are symbols of cultural identity. |
| A．The causes of language loss. | B．The high risk of language loss. |
| C．The measures of language protection. | D．The importance of language diversity. |
