This is a piece that Phil Cash Cash wrote for the Indigenous Languages and Technology list (ILAT). With his permission I am posting it here in full.

As we enter 2008, we are reminded to reflect on the unique status of human languages in the world. Never before has our humanity witnessed such a dramatic decline in our linguistic and cultural diversity.

“The loss of local languages and of the cultural systems which they express, has meant irretrievable loss of diverse and interesting intellectual wealth. Only with diversity can it be guaranteed that all avenues of human intellectual progress will be traveled.”

Ken Hale, 1992. (source)

At the same time, we are also witness to the resurgence of indigenous/aboriginal activism with its emphasis on language revival, language maintenance, and the creation of new speakers. Around the world, linguists, linguistic anthropologists, and film makers are steadily embarking on documentation projects to record what may possibly be the last words of a uniquely spoken language.

In 1996, it was estimated that at least 6,703 separate languages were spoken in the world¹. Elsewhere, it was also estimated that in every two weeks time, a language was known to lose its last speaker and thus become extinct². Let’s do a little math here. Every year 26 languages will go extinct. Every decade 260 languages will go extinct. So, in 2008, at least 312 languages have gone extinct since the 1996 census. This estimate leaves us with at least 6,391 viable languages yet existing in the world. Understandably though, these numbers are only estimates and the realities of language loss are relatively unknown.

The looming threat of losing one’s language, however, is very real and for many indigenous/aboriginal communities the future is uncertain.

Undeniably, most all of us – indigenous/aboriginal communities, linguists, anthropologists, students, & interested observers – recognize that our language(s) and culture matter. Further, UNESCO recognizes that our cultural diversity is closely linked to linguistic diversity.

So “How can one help?” you ask. Become an everyday language activist!

1. Get the message out concerning language endangerment. Create awareness.
2. Become an expert on the suppression of linguistic and cultural diversity.
3. Create your own web site, blog, and/or listserv supporting an endangered language.
4. Get media coverage and tell a dramatic human story on language endangerment & revitalization.
5. Raise money and contribute to foundations supporting language endangerment (ELF, FEL, ILI, etc)!
6. Raise money and contribute directly to community-based language documentation/revitalization projects.
7. Donate material resources or in-kind contributions directly to endangered language communities.
8. Devote part or all of your scholarly/graduate career on documenting an endangered language.
9. Support community advocacy and grass-roots efforts on language endangerment issues.
10. Organize a sponsored event supporting community advocacy or language endangerment issues.

Take this moment in time to reflect upon the unlimited possibilities for change in the way we think about language endangerment and linguistic/cultural diversity. Can you make a difference? Yes, absolutely!

¹Linguistics Society of America website

²Living Tongues website

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Happy New Year, and may your 2008 be better than your 2007.

-Jangari