The UN has
declared 2019 to be the International Year of Indigenous Languages (IYIL2019). Of around seven thousand languages spoken in the
world, over 2600 are claimed to be endangered in some way (which may mean not
being passed on to children, spoken by decreasing numbers of people, given no
official recognition or even discriminated against in some way).
Many
indigenous people are subjected to enforced relocation or assimilation into a
country’s majority language or culture.
According to the website, ‘Language is
pivotal in the areas of human rights protection, good governance, peace
building, reconciliation, and sustainable development.’
This is perhaps
rather optimistic, but many speakers of endangered languages suffer greatly
because of the language they speak, and this is often entwined with other
issues, such as occupying land potentially rich in exploitable resources.
Nobody should be forced to learn another language in order to live a safe and
decent life. Capitalism's drive for profit means that many millions of people
are threatened with losing their languages, their ways of life, even their
lives.
PB
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