What Is Lost If A Language Is Lost?

As many as ten languages die out every year.

Up until the 1970s, Aborigines in Australia were forbidden to speak in their own tongues and as a result only 25 out of more than 400 different languages are spoken today. When a language is lost, all knowledge and experience that has been gathered over generations of learning is forgotten.

Oral tradition is the main method of passing down knowledge to a new generation in many cultures. Stories such as those told amongst australian Aboriginies about the Dreamtime, knowledge about the medicinal properties of plants, the locations of stable food sources are all laid to rest if a language is lost, an entire culture wiped out. Joseph Poth, head of the language division in UNESCO believes that we should all strive for ‘trilingualism’ – we should all speak our mother tongue, a ‘neighbour’ language and an international language.