Why Linguistic Diversity

The world's linguistic diversity is declining dramatically, but communities are fighting back.

Introduction

Languages and cultures have always come into being and disappeared, but today's situation is without parallel: a massive silencing of linguistic diversity on every continent, related to the ongoing "sixth extinction" of biological species.

Human Rights

The ability of communities to develop their own cultures, traditions, and languages free from coercion and outside pressures is now widely understood as a critical human right.

Linguistics

When a language disappears, we lose a valuable window into our own biological endowment — language.

Communal Identity

While culture and identity can survive even after a language has become dormant, historically distinct communities lose their most identifying features when they lose their language.