Home
Business
Metro
Nation
World
Sports
Feature
Opinion
View more »Opinion Columns
Wan LixinOpinion deputy editor of Shanghai Daily
Panel focuses on significance of inclusive growth
Panelists share insights into sustainable future
Sunday
- Subscribe
Related News
Atlas shows dying languages
Source: Agencies |
February 20, 2009, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
SOME 2,500 of the approximately 6,000 languages used around the planet today are in danger of disappearing, a team of linguists said yesterday as they unveiled an online atlas of those that are endangered.
The atlas says 200 languages have become extinct in the past three generations and 199 languages have fewer than 10 speakers left.
Among those recently classified as extinct is Eyak, whose last speaker died in Alaska last year.
The atlas "is interactive, ongoing, open-ended," the atlas' editor in chief, Australian linguist Christopher Moseley, told a Paris news conference.
The atlas invites users to contribute and update, and allows users to search according to country, degree of endangerment, name of languages or by number of speakers.
The atlas is UNESCO's third that lists disappearing languages and is the first one put online.
The number of endangered languages has grown sharply this time.
Languages are disappearing in every region of the world, from the United States to France and sub-Saharan Africa.
Moseley told journalists the atlas aims to revive linguistic appreciation.
"We hope a project like this one will encourage people everywhere in the world to take an interest in their vital linguistic heritage," he said.
The atlas says 200 languages have become extinct in the past three generations and 199 languages have fewer than 10 speakers left.
Among those recently classified as extinct is Eyak, whose last speaker died in Alaska last year.
The atlas "is interactive, ongoing, open-ended," the atlas' editor in chief, Australian linguist Christopher Moseley, told a Paris news conference.
The atlas invites users to contribute and update, and allows users to search according to country, degree of endangerment, name of languages or by number of speakers.
The atlas is UNESCO's third that lists disappearing languages and is the first one put online.
The number of endangered languages has grown sharply this time.
Languages are disappearing in every region of the world, from the United States to France and sub-Saharan Africa.
Moseley told journalists the atlas aims to revive linguistic appreciation.
"We hope a project like this one will encourage people everywhere in the world to take an interest in their vital linguistic heritage," he said.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
