Faith Nyasuguta
Languages are more than a means of communication; they are living records of history, culture, and identity. Yet, every year, some of the world’s 7,000 languages fade into obscurity. Parents stop teaching them to their children, words are forgotten, and entire communities lose their ability to read their own scripts. The decline is alarming, with one language dying every 40 days- a significant increase from a decade ago.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) warns that predictions of half the world’s languages disappearing by the end of the century may be overly optimistic. Many of these languages vanish with their last speakers, while thousands more are endangered due to limited usage or exclusion from formal settings like schools and workplaces.
However, a quiet resistance is growing among communities determined to preserve their linguistic heritage. Activists like Tochi Precious, a Nigerian living in Abuja, are stepping up to combat language extinction. “It pains my heart every day to see that a language is dying off,” she says. “It’s not just about the language; it’s also about the people, their history, and their culture. When it dies, everything linked to it dies too.”
Precious joined the effort to save Igbo, a prominent West African language once predicted to go extinct by 2025. Through Wikitongues, an organization dedicated to documenting and preserving languages, she works to ensure a robust record of Igbo’s words, meanings, and usage. “A language can be endangered, but the people who speak it can also fight for its survival,” she says. “2025 is already here, and Igbo is not going extinct.”
In India, a similar fight is underway for Angika, a language spoken by around 7 million people in Bihar. Activist Amrit Sufi has taken to documenting Angika’s oral traditions, recording folk songs and providing transcriptions and translations. “Documenting the folk songs was my way of connecting with my culture and doing my part for it,” says Sufi. She uploads videos of Angika speakers to platforms like Wikipedia, a cost-effective tool embraced by language activists to build dictionaries and archives.
Despite its millions of speakers, Angika’s absence in schools and formal settings accelerates its decline. Some speakers even feel ashamed, viewing it as inferior to dominant languages like Hindi. Sufi emphasizes the urgency of preservation: “Oral culture is disappearing as new generations prefer industry-produced music over traditional group singing.”
Wikitongues has helped activists document about 700 languages, using collective resources and alternative-language Wikipedia entries. Meanwhile, advancements in artificial intelligence offer new ways to document endangered languages, though ethical concerns remain about “stealing” written material for training AI systems.
Efforts to save languages extend beyond documentation. For the Rohingya people of Myanmar, largely displaced to Bangladesh as refugees, developing a written version of their mostly oral language has become essential. Using the newly developed Hanifi script, books have been distributed to over 500 schools in Rohingya refugee camps.
Sahat Zia Hero, who works with the Rohingya Cultural Memory Centre, highlights the dual importance of education and cultural preservation. “If we prioritize teaching our language, especially to the younger generation, we can prevent the loss of both education and cultural identity,” he says. The center also provides a physical space for Rohingya culture and promotes using the Hanifi script on social media, where many Rohingya currently write in Roman or Burmese lettering.
However, preserving a language is only the first step. The greater challenge lies in persuading communities to use it. For Igbo, one of Nigeria’s largest languages, this has been particularly difficult. Precious notes that many Nigerian parents prioritize English for its perceived economic and social advantages, believing that Igbo offers no future. “They used to say you’re not going anywhere with Igbo,” she recalls.
Yet, the tide is turning. Efforts to save Igbo have yielded promising results, and Precious takes pride in seeing the language thrive again. Her work serves as a testament to the resilience of communities and their ability to reclaim their linguistic heritage.
The fight to preserve endangered languages like Igbo, Angika, and Rohingya is not just about words, it’s about identity, history, and culture. These efforts remind us that when a language dies, a unique way of understanding the world dies with it. By documenting, teaching, and using these languages, activists are not only preserving the past but also ensuring a richer, more diverse future.
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