Disappearing languages, vanishing voices – The Decline of Linguistic Diversity and the Need for Strategies to Preserve Endangered Languages | 8 September 2023 | UPSC Daily Editorial Analysis

What's the article about?

• It talks about the global decline in the diversity of indigenous languages.

Relevance:

• GS1: Salient features of Indian Society, Diversity of India
• Essay
• Geography Optional: Paper I – Ch:6 Perspectives in Human Geography; Paper II – Indian Geography

Context:

• English has been acting as a common language in India, connecting multilingual Indians since the time of the British Raj. However, the language becomes an impediment in remote areas.
• This leads to the question of why all people in the world cannot speak the same language.
• An interesting mathematical model forecasts the extinction of 40% of languages with less than 35,000 speakers within 100 years.
• Language extinction is related to the migration of people to countries with a common language. This results in pressure to shift to the dominant language spoken in the country, leading to a loss of linguistic diversity.

Analysis:

• Forecast of Language Extinction:
  • An estimated 7,000 distinct languages are spoken as a mother tongue across the world. However, these languages are shrinking rapidly.
  • The Index of Linguistic Diversity (ILD) demonstrates that globally, linguistic diversity declined by 20% over the period 1970-2005.
  • Regionally, indigenous linguistic diversity declined over 60% in the Americas, 30% in the Pacific including Australia, and almost 20% in Africa. According to UNESCO, 42 languages are heading towards extinction in India. These were spoken by less than 10,000 people.
• Language Diversity Index:
  • The Language Diversity Index ranges from 0 (everyone has the same mother tongue) to 1 (no two people have the same mother tongue).
  • Countries that have people with a smaller number of mother languages have a lower LDI than countries with a large number of mother tongues.
  • The United Kingdom has an LDI of 0.139 when compared to 0.930 for India.
  • The three lowest ranking countries are Haiti (0.000), Cuba (0.001), and Samoa (0.002), while the top ranking three countries are Papua Guinea (0.990), Vanuatu (0.972), and the Solomon Islands (0.965).
• Situation in India:
  • According to a report published by UNESCO in 2018, 42 languages are heading towards extinction in India. These were spoken by less than 10,000 people.
  • According to the norms set by UNESCO, any language spoken by only 10,000 people is potentially endangered.
  • Most dying languages are from the indigenous tribal groups spread across India.
• Need for Preservation Strategies:
  • Language is not only a vehicle for communication to express ideas and emotions, but it also carries cultural values and indigenous knowledge.
  • The extinction of languages will only result in shrinking cultural diversity and an increase in cultural homogenisation.
  • The world must find ways and means to preserve some of its endangered languages.

Way Forward:

• The decline of linguistic diversity is a global concern. The loss of language is not only a loss of linguistic diversity but also a loss in terms of associated cultural variations, opinions, views, and knowledge. It is time to evolve ideas to arrest the decline of languages on the larger global canvas.