EXTINCTION

Languages

LANGUAGES:
WHAT'S GOING ON?

By Andrea Guallasamn
14 October 2016

anguage has allowed us to since its creation, satisfy

our need to communicate with each other and thus to
be able to form and live in communities. Without the
use of the language, the culture of the human being
could wobble and even disappear. The main languages of the
world include a little less than half of the global population,
which leads us to ask ourselves, what happens with the

other languages?
During the last century there have become extinct
approximately 400 languages around the world. In most
cases languages died because people simply abandoned
their native tongues when they became surrounded by
people speaking more common or dominant language, in
their own country or abroad. Dispense with to practice, the
fluidity of a native language begins to disappear in the

speaker and progressively the language also.

For this and other reasons, there are languages that
are disappearing throughout the world.
In Ecuador, according to the Interactive Atlas of the
world's languages in danger prepared by UNESCO (The
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization), considered that there are six languages in
danger of extinction, of which two are in a "critical
situation"; these are: Awap'it, Kichwa, Shiwiar chicham,
Siona-seoya, Zapra and Sia pedee.

But does it matter whether a seemingly language

spoken by a few people in one isolated corner of the
world goes out of existence?
We lose ancient knowledge, if we lose languages",
says David Harrison, co-founder of the non-profit Living
Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages. The diverse
languages have been supportive of deep cultural
knowledge. They contain a group accumulated of knowledge,
included those of geography, zoology, mathematics,
astronomy, pharmacology, botany, meteorology and more.
Think about this: Since the sonorous cinema was
implemented, the cinematographic industry has mobilized
million dollars for to sale and production of movies, which
form a part of one or another culture. According to Statista,
a web portal of statistics; in the world, people spends
annually more than 90 million dollars in this type of
entertainment, so why not we must also invest in

preserving the only thing that we have to communicate

TRIBE ZAPARA, their mother thong is

seriously in danger of disappearing.

and express our ways of life to others?

Maybe our natal language is one common or acquaintance
but there exist speaking persons of minority languages who
do not possess information in his natal language and who
slowly go forgetting it and their culture becomes extinct.
The technology has allowed us to help and to increase
the knowledge in all the possible languages. For example,
there is a version of already available OpenOffice in
Ecuadorian Kichwa, and there is an Openkichwa app allows
speakers to write messages with words of their language
and get more information.
Speaker does not be ashamed of your native
language, you must share and transmit to the new
generations your interesting and single culture, and more
knowledges for making a diverse and inclusive world.
Language is like a city, and for its the building, which every
human being brings a stone.
Culture 2016, nmero 1