In terms of drivers of change, much attention goes to technologies these days, far underestimating some in the cultural domain. Often these are harder to spot or measure, yet sometimes there are numbers that do make a very strong statement. For example …

By 2100 half of the 6-7000 languages spoken across the planet will have disappeared, according to a study recently published by the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages in Oregon.

A few years ago, at TED 2003, National Geographic explorer Wade Davis, warned of the rapid decline of diversity in our ethnosphere, at a velocity exceeding that of the biosphere. 50% of the world’s languages are no longer being taught to children. Every two weeks some elder dies, taking with him/her the last remains of a language and along with it a whole body of knowledge (e.g. of medicinal plants), a whole culture of mind and spirit.

Sometimes a language disappears in an abrupt way, other times it fades away in bilingualism, or by consequences of political decisions (see also this NY Times article). What is

Via Slashdot

This entry was posted on Monday, October 1st, 2007 at 10:41 and is filed under future, society, trends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.