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PARIS, FRANCE, February 20, 2002: About half of the world’s 6,000 languages are under threat of disappearing under pressure from more dominant tongues or repressive government policies, a new study says. From France and Russia to the Americas and Australia, minority languages and the heritage that goes along with them are at risk of dying out, according to a UNESCO study to be released Thursday. “With the death and disappearance of a language, an irreplaceable unit in our knowledge and understanding of human thought and world-view is lost forever,” said a statement by the Paris-based United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The 90 page study, “Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger of Disappearing,” said the Americas and Australia had the worst record. “In the United States, less than 150 Indian languages have survived out of several hundreds that were spoken before the arrival of the Europeans.” According to the study, a native language can disappear when its speakers relocate and are required to speak the dominant tongue to get a job and function in the new society, or because they confront a more aggressive or economically stronger culture. Widespread bilingual or multilingual government policies on the Indian subcontinent have helped keep local languages alive there.

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