New Indpress

Mysore, Oct 27: ‘‘There are about 7000 languages in countries across the world. Half of these languages are spoken by communities or groups having less than one lakh population and are potentially endangered languages,’’ said Nicholas Ostler, Chairman of London-based Foundation for Endangered Languages.

In a news conference held on the second day of the three-day international conference on ‘Endangered Language and Multilingualism’ at CIIL, he said there was need for more efforts on the part of government’s, local bodies, communities and individuals to protect the languages that are on the threshold of vanishing.

The foundation is working with 30 member countries to spread awareness to retain the traditional linguistic culture. These smaller languages are often threatened by bigger languages, which have rich influence on large populations.

They are like big fish swallowing the small ones, he said.

Ostler said he came across the plight of four distinct smaller languages in the Andaman islands, which are spoken by less than 50 people.

The Kechua language of South America faced a similar fate. The vanishing of smaller languages would lead to cultural and linguistic disaster, he stated.

Loyalty to Language: He said the government policies and NGOs should work towards creating loyalty among the younger generation and the group of communities for ancestral languages.

The Information Technology era could also help document and revitalise the languages on the verge of vanishing.

Mahendra Verma, Chairman of the conference said India had more languages and dialects than believed. People tend to forget the smaller languages, as there is no economic value attached to them.