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Nearly 44% of World’s Languages Face Extinction, Threatening Cultural Knowledge
Some languages around the world are spoken by only a small number of people.
Researchers say nearly 44% of the world’s approximately 7,164 languages have fewer than 1,000 speakers.
If these languages disappear, people may also lose stories, traditions, and knowledge about their environment.
IIT Jodhpur researchers visit communities to record their languages and cultural practices.
They are studying the Bhil community in Rajasthan and how its language connects to desert living.
They are also studying Mundari in Jharkhand because it has an unusual number system.
Another project looks at Tamil-speaking families living in Switzerland.
These families use Tamil at home while Swiss German and French are common outside the home.
The researchers hope their work will help explain how languages change and how communities can preserve them.
Researchers at IIT Jodhpur say nearly 44% of the world’s approximately 7,164 languages have fewer than 1,000 speakers.
Language loss can threaten traditional knowledge, cultural practices, social traditions, and communities’ understanding of the world.
IIT Jodhpur researchers study the Bhil community in Rajasthan, including knowledge adapted to the Thar’s harsh desert environment.
Research on Mundari in Jharkhand has identified a distinctive and relatively rare number system.
A collaborative project examines how Tamil is maintained by second-generation migrant families in Switzerland.
- Who
- Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur, including Gurujegan Murugesan, are studying endangered, lesser-spoken, and heritage languages with collaborators.
- What
- The research documents languages, analyzes their grammar, and examines how language loss may affect cultural knowledge and language transmission.
- Where
- The work includes the Osian region of Rajasthan, Jharkhand, and Tamil migrant communities in Switzerland.
- When
- Field visits take place every semester, while the languages are described as being at risk of disappearing in the coming decades.
- Why
- Researchers aim to understand how languages preserve knowledge, evolve, and remain connected to society and culture.
Key facts
- Languages worldwide
- Approximately 7,164
- Languages with fewer than 1,000 speakers
- Nearly 44%
- Primary research institution
- Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur
- Bhil research location
- Osian region of Rajasthan
- Mundari research location
- Jharkhand
- Heritage-language study
- Second-generation Tamil migrant communities in Switzerland
- Research support
- Swiss National Science Foundation and Indian Council of Social Science Research
Quotes
Gurujegan Murugesan
Assistant Professor at the School of Liberal Arts, IIT Jodhpur
“When a language becomes endangered, it is not only the language that is at risk. Cultural knowledge accumulated across generations and ways of life connected to that language are also affected.”
freepressjournal.in
“Our field studies, therefore, focus not only on documenting the language but also on understanding the knowledge that communities have transmitted through it.”
freepressjournal.in
Sources
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