There are approximately 6000 languages in the world and one of these dies every two weeks.

Alivorte, Esperanto havas propran ideologion, ĝi estas pli ol lingvo. Ĝiaj uzantoj vidas en ĝi la lingvan elementon de la batalo por pli bona mondo. Kaj inter la celoj de tiu agado estas konservado de malgrandaj lingvoj; …. estas ankoraŭ proksimume ses mil lingvoj en la mondo sed ciun duan semajnon, unu el ili mortas. (my italics)

Professor Ghi’lad Zuckermann, 12th September 2011.

This is an absolutely shocking statistic so what can be done? Learning about Revival Linguistics might be one possible solution. Revival linguistics studies languages which have either died, are seriously endangered or are endangered. Perhaps the most successful example of a language which has been revived is modern Hebrew or Israeli.

For linguist Ghi’lad Zuckermann, the aim of everyone who is interested in languages should be to reclaim languages which have died, to revitalise languages which are seriously endangered and to reinvigorate endangered languages.

But what’s the point? Zuckermann offers three reasons for preserving our linguistic heritage: the ethical, the aesthetic and the utilitarian.

For my part, Zuckermann’s explanation of the ethical reasons for defending language diversity are the most persuasive as he movingly describes the loss of cultural autonomy and intellectual sovereignty  of human beings whose languages disappear.

So why not take a look at Zuckermann’s web site together with other resources by Zuckermann on the web?

In particular, I would recommend the following:

• “Sleeping Beauties awake: Language Revival, Cognitive Empowerment and Social Well Being” – a lecture at a recent Polyglot Conference;
• His work with the Barngarla people of Australia to help them rediscover their language;
• Zuckermann talking about Revival Linguistics and about what Revival Linguists can learn from the Esperanto community and vice versa.