Back to the Future of Endangered Languages | Colleen Fitzgerald | TEDxUTA

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Published 2015-04-17
Rapid globalization and technology that brings majority world languages into minority language homes threatens the survival of the estimated 6,000 to 7,000 languages worldwide. Whether in Africa, Australia, the United States or beyond, tiny languages are endangered, with their survival often depending on the last elderly speakers. Europe's endangered Irish language is a great story of a language reviving its prospects, but success stories of languages renewed and reclaimed abound, such as the Wampanoag language, spoken by the tribe reputed to have celebrated the first Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims. The human spirit craves a connection to ancestors and the past, and heritage languages do just that, while breathing new life into the future.

Rapid globalization and technology that brings majority world languages into minority language homes threatens the survival of the estimated 6,000 to 7,000 languages worldwide. Whether in Africa, Australia, the United States or beyond, tiny languages are endangered, with their survival often depending on the last elderly speakers. Europe's endangered Irish language is a great story of a language reviving its prospects, but success stories of languages renewed and reclaimed abound, such as the Wampanoag language, spoken by the tribe reputed to have celebrated the first Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims. The human spirit craves a connection to ancestors and the past, and heritage languages do just that, while breathing new life into the future.


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All Comments (15)
  • @thatdrummerperson
    That's really cool how the Wompanog (forgive my most likely incorrect spelling) language was revived.
  • @justushall9634
    Amazing, in the early 1800's, Irish languages was much stronger (in terms of portion of global population that spoke it nativly) than Finnish is now. (I am from Finland.)
  • @amirsabbaghi209
    daaaaamn !!! i can already see my local language die . only 20 years ago mazani had 3 or 4 million speakers but now i can say less than one million .
  • @Reofive
    Poor woman, she keeps making slips of the tongue, she doesn't seem comfortable speaking in public :s So am I.
  • @enkidu360
    Read "Travels Among Threatened Languages" by Mark Abley. Very interesting and readable book.
  • @justushall9634
    2:07, it says "Every continent... has an endangered language." Not strictly true: Antarctica has no permanent population, hence no endangered languages.
  • @vvalencia10yearsago31
    Hei! Jeg heter Abhirami! Jeg bore i India! Hvorfor En en jeg lære Norsk? Jeg elsker det!