UNESCO fears loss of the world's languages

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As cbc.ca reports, UNSECO has warned that more than half of the world's nearly 6,000 languages are in danger of disappearing, pushed aside by dominant languages such as English.

As part of UNESCO 's sixth annual International Mother Language Day, a number of linguistic experts meet during a conference in Paris, France. To culture the threat of loosing a language is universal: "it's a vision of the world that disappears," when a language dies,  UNESCO director general Koichiro Matsuura said, according to AFP. Yet, "it is not necessary that [minority] languages disappear under the weight of others,"  Musa Bin Jaafar Bin Hassan, president of the General Conference of UNESCO is cited.

Delegates from three continents at the conference discussed new initiatives to protect linguistic diversity worldwide, including a plan for an Italian museum dedicated to languages and the elevating of the African Academy of Languages to a more significant role in the African Union.

2005 Danish documentary In Languages We Live - Voices of the World, which examines the impact of disappearing languages through the stories of individuals  was presented by former Iceland president Vigdis Finnbogadottir.

Source: cbc.ca