LANGUAGES ARE DYING!

BY DHYANI PARAG PANCHAL

As some rare species, languages are also disappearing. Even in India, many languages are growing
faint because English is more encouraged. Today more than 6000 languages are spoken and about
41% languages are endangered.

Chikeso is one language that is spoken by a handful of 70 people only and that to not fluently. A red
Indian woman named Catherine Wilmond who was cogent in Chikeso, died in 1997 so the fate of
Chikeso language was sealed.

At the beginning of the 19th century, some Russian traders visited the west coast for the first time,
through an unfrequented route, met Eskimos. This tribe was known as Eyak, and their language was
also recognized as Eyak. A Russian philologist visited the same region in 1805 for the linguistic study
of Eyak collected rich information on its vocabulary and grammar to write a paper. Unfortunately, he
lost the manuscript and Eyak language is now extinct. Today English is their new mother tongue.

There is another case of language called Ubykh, which became extinct on October 7 1992. Ubykh
was spoken by only 50,000 people. They made their living in Caucasus Mountain for years. But, in
1864, they were expelled from their native land by Czarist Russia. They took shelter in Turkey. Their
alphabet consisting of 83 consonants now had no use. Only Turkish language was in use there, so
they had no option but to adopt Turkish language. The speakers of Ubykh dwindled. Now, there was
only one person to speak Ubykh- Taufique Assenque. By the time philogist came to him, Taufique
already died.

This concludes that our rich cultures are slowly getting extinct. We should educate about our rich
history, traditions, culture, language to our youth and children.