Requiescat in Pace (Rest in Peace)

Requiescat in Pace (Rest in Peace)

Few people are aware that “an estimated 7,000 languages are spoken around the world today, and one of them dies out about every two weeks” (Boston Globe). As the number of languages spoken in the world rapidly decreases, the United Nations General Assembly, on May 16, 2007, proclaimed 2008 to be the International Year of Languages. To celebrate this event, UNESCO invites governments, United Nations organizations, civil society organizations, educational institutions, professional associations and all other interested entities to increase their own activities to promote and protect all languages, particularly endangered languages, in all individual and collective contexts.

In order to facilitate partnership, a list of possible fields of action and a list of projects currently undertaken are available at http://www.unesco.org/ for those interested in promoting and supporting multilingualism.

The dynamics around language extinction are complex. They involve external factors such as economics and discrimination, and internal factors like self perception and attitudes toward one's own group and towards others. Unlike endangered plants, whose seeds can be preserved in seed banks, and endangered animals that can be protected on nature preserves, endangered languages survive only if people speak them. This is specially challenging when those people have reasons for no longer speaking their parents’ tongue.

I’m not expecting miracles to happen but I believe all languages have a raison d'être, that each one possesses a unique quality that adds to the richness and complexity of human experience. Cada idioma es una visión del mundo (every language is a view of the world). So, proclaiming 2008 the International Year of Languages is at least a way of addressing the importance of language diversity.