Friday, March 29, 2024

2,500 languages threatened with extinction: UNESCO

Agence France-Presse . Paris
The world has lost Manx in the Isle of Man, Ubykh in Turkey and last year Alaska’s last native speaker of Eyak, Marie Smith Jones, died, taking the aboriginal language with her.
Of the 6,900 languages spoken in the world, some 2,500 are endangered, the UN’s cultural agency UNESCO said Thursday as it released its latest atlas of world languages.
That represents a multi-fold increase from the last atlas compiled in 2001 which listed 900 languages threatened with extinction.
But experts say this is more the result of better research tools than of an increasingly dire situation for the world’s many tongues.
Still there is disheartening news.
There are 199 languages in the world spoken by fewer than a dozen people, including Karaim which has six speakers in Ukraine and Wichita, spoken by 10 people in the US state of Oklahoma.
The last four speakers of Lengilu talk among themselves in Indonesia.
Prospects are a bit brighter for some 178 other languages, spoken by between 10 and 150 people.
More than 200 languages have become extinct over the last three generations such as Ubykh that fell silent in 1992 when Tefvic Esenc passed on, Aasax in Tanzania, which disappeared in 1976, and Manx in 1974.
India tops the list of countries with the greatest number of endangered languages, 196 in all, followed by the United States which stands to lose 192 and Indonesia, where 147 are in peril.
Australian linguist Christopher Moseley, who headed the atlas’ team of 25 experts, noted that countries with rich linguistic diversity like India and the United States are also facing the greatest threat of language extinction.
Even Sub-Saharan Africa’s melting pot of some 2,000 languages is expected to shrink by at least 10 per cent over the coming century, according to UNESCO.
On UNESCO’s rating scale, 538 languages are critically endangered, 502 severely endangered, 632 definitely endangered and 607 unsafe.
On a brighter note, Papua New Guinea, the country of 800 languages, the most diverse in the world, has only 88 endangered dialects.
Certain languages are even showing signs of a revival, like Cornish, a Celtic language spoken in Cornwall, southern England, and Sishee in New Caledonia.
Governments in Peru, New Zealand, Canada, the United States and Mexico have been successful in their efforts to prevent indigenous languages from dying out.
UNESCO deputy director Francoise Riviere applauded government efforts to support linguistic diversity but added that ‘people have to be proud to speak their language’ to ensure it thrives.

Courtesy of www.newagebd.com

Related News

Hajj registration extended till Jan 18

News Desk : dhakamirror.com The government, in a notice issued yesterday, extended the Hajj registration deadline for 2024 until January 18. It said aspiring Hajis would have to primarily deposit Tk 2.05 lakh, while the rest should be paid by February 29 for final registration. One has to pay Tk 5,78,840 under the general package, ... Read more

Dense fog disrupts communications across Bangladesh

News Desk : dhakamirror.com Cold and dense fog continued to disrupt life with road, air and waterways communication remaining suspended in the early hours of Tuesday as Bangladesh braces for this winter’s first cold wave likely to set in today. Authorities also confirmed until Tuesday the death of 14 people in cold-related diseases and road ... Read more

27,000 GPA 5 achievers not to get seat in public universities

Shahin Akhter Over 27,000 GPA 5 achievers in this year’s HSC and equivalent examinations cannot be admitted to the public universities due to fewer seats. A total of 92,595 examinees secured GPA 5 out of total 10,67,852 passed in the Higher Secondary Certificate examinations this year. But there are around 65,400 seats at the public ... Read more

Magnitude 5.5 earthquake jolts Dhaka, other parts of Bangladesh

News Desk : dhakamirror.com A magnitude 5.5 earthquake struck Bangladesh this morning, the United States Geological Survey said, with no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake jolted different parts of the country including Dhaka around in Ramganj of Cumilla at 9:35am, reports The Daily Star quoting Meteorologist Rubayet Kabir of Bangladesh Meteorological Department. The quake ... Read more

250cc Bajaj Pulsar N250 launched in Bangladesh

News Desk : dhakamirror.com Uttara Motors, the manufacturer and distributor of Bajaj motorcycles in Bangladesh, has recently launched The Pulsar N250 motorcycle. Pulsar N250 comes with a price tag of Tk339,999 and is available in three different colours. The motorcycle with a 250 cc oil-cooled engine has got dual channel antilock braking system (ABS). Indian ... Read more

HSC, equivalent exam results tomorrow

News Desk : dhakamirror.com The results of this year’s Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and its equivalent examinations will be published tomorrow. The copy of the results will be handed over to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina tomorrow morning. Later in the day, the results will be officially announced by Education Minister Dipu Moni at a press ... Read more

Gold hits record with a bhori of Tk 106,376

News Desk : dhakamirror.com The jewelry makers of the country has increased 22-carat gold price by Tk 1,750 today. Tomorrow, the price of 22-carat gold will reach a historic high of Tk 106,376 per bhori. The new price is 1.67 percent higher than the previous all-time high of Tk 104,626 per bhori (11.664 grammes) recorded ... Read more

Gold’s price reaches a new peak

News Desk : dhakamirror.com Gold price in the country has surged to a record Tk1.04 lakh per bhori due to a rise in the rates of pure gold in the local market. The price of the best quality gold or one bar of 22-carat (11.664 grams) gold has been increased by Tk 1,750 to Tk104,626 ... Read more

Bangladesh permits 375cc domestically produced motorcycles

News Desk : dhakamirror.com Bangladesh government has allowed locally made motorcycles of up to 375cc along with the existing imported motorcycles of up to 165cc to facilitate the expansion of the local industrial sector. The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, under the road transport and bridges ministry, on Wednesday issued a circular in this regard. It ... Read more

Four-day tourism festival begins in Dhaka

News Desk : dhakamirror.com A four-day long festival to boost local tourism will be launched on September 27 in Dhaka to celebrate World Tourism Day 2023. The Bangladesh Tourism Board under the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism will organise the festival titled ‘Bangladesh Festival’ at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre. The festival will be ... Read more

Bangladesh Railway launches luggage vans with intercity trains

News Desk : dhakamirror.com To significantly increase the supply of perishable items, agricultural and other goods, Bangladesh Railway (BR) combined luggage vans with intercity trains on Sunday. The first van was combined with Sylhet bound intercity train “Joyantika Express”. Jayantika Express transported 4,600 kg of goods from Dhaka to Sylhet as Bangladesh Railway’s first intercity ... Read more

Bangabandhu Tunnel: Government sets toll ranging from Tk200 to Tk1,000

News Desk : dhakamirror.com The government has set toll rates for using the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Tunnel built under the Karnaphuli River in Chattogram, ranging from 200 Tk for cars to 1,000 Tk for 4-axle trailers, which is slated for inauguration in September. The Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges issued a circular in ... Read more

516 people died in road accidents in June

News Desk : dhakamirror.com At least 516 people were killed and 812 more injured in 559 road accidents in June this year, said a Road Safety Foundation report published on Wednesday. Of the accidents, involvement of motorcycles was the highest 37.03 per cent and the highest 32.75 per cent people were killed in the motorcycle ... Read more

SSC exams to be held on full syllabus in February next year

News Desk : dhakamirror.com The Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and equivalent exams for 2024 will be held in the first week of February. It will be the first time the exams return to their traditional schedule after a four-year disruption caused by the pandemic. The exams will cover all subjects as per the full syllabus ... Read more

Eid-ul-Azha: BR to sell all advance tickets online from June 14

News Desk : dhakamirror.com Bangladesh Railway will start selling advance train tickets from 14 June to tackle the home rush on the occasion of the upcoming Eid-ul-Adha. The authorities will start selling tickets from June 14 at two different time slots to reduce the load on its server. The West Zone will start selling tickets ... Read more

A lucky escape

News Desk : dhakamirror.com Mocha makes landfall in Myanmar, weakens; causes no serious damage in Bangladesh Cyclone Mocha veered towards Myanmar and eventually made landfall there a few hours earlier than forecast and it did not cause massive damage that many in Bangladesh feared. Around 13,500 houses were affected by the cyclone in Cox’s Bazar, ... Read more

Mocha starts crossing Cox’s Bazar coast, wind speed up to 215 kmph: BMD

News Desk : dhakamirror.com The very severe cyclone Mocha has started crossing Cox’s Bazar-north Myanmar coast and is likely to move north-northeasterly direction further and complete crossing Cox’s Bazar-North Myanmar coast near Sittwe of Myanmar by afternoon or evening on Sunday, according to the latest bulletin of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department on Sunday morning. The ... Read more

Mocha approaches coast with 200 kmph speed

News Desk : dhakamirror.com Cyclone Mocha is approaching the coastal areas of Bangladesh and Myanmar with a maximum wind speed of 200 kmph, said the latest weather bulletin of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department. According to the bulletin, at 6:00pm, the very severe cyclonic storm was centred about 605km south-southwest of Chattogram port, 525km south-southwest of ... Read more

Cyclone Mocha intensifies into ‘extremely severe cyclonic storm’: IMD

News Desk : dhakamirror.com Mocha has intensified into an extremely severe cyclonic storm over east central Bay of Bengal and was 760km south southwest of Cox’s Bazar at 2:30am (local time) today, according to the Indian Met Department’s last update. It is moving north-northeastwards and likely to intensify further and cross Bangladesh and Myanmar coasts ... Read more

Bangladesh coastal areas are under danger signal number 8

News Desk : dhakamirror.com Bangladesh is ready to evacuate about a million people in Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar as the very severe cyclonic storm over the east central Bay of Bengal looked ferocious with rapid intensification and is forecast to begin to have impacts on the south-east coast of the country from Saturday night. The ... Read more