International Mother Language Day

Today, February 21, is International Mother Language Day. A rare occurrence, CBC posted an article about the precarious situation of the world's minority languages:

More than half of the world's nearly 6,000 languages are in danger of disappearing, pushed aside by dominant languages such as English, UNESCO warned Tuesday.

A group of linguistic specialists gathered in Paris Tuesday for a conference marking the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's sixth annual International Mother Language Day.

When a language dies, "it's a vision of the world that disappears," UNESCO director general Koichiro Matsuura said, according to Agence France-Presse.

Delegates at the conference discussed new initiatives to protect linguistic diversity worldwide, including a plan for an Italian museum dedicated to languages and the elevating of the African Academy of Languages to a more significant role in the African Union.

Participants, who included delegates from Europe, Africa and Latin America, shared stories about the difficulties faced by those who speak minority languages.

Former Iceland president Vigdis Finnbogadottir, who led the country as its first female president from 1980 through 1996, also presented the 2005 Danish documentary In Languages We Live — Voices of the World, which examines the impact of disappearing languages through the stories of individuals.

This year, the conference also looked at the specific issue of linguistic diversity on the internet.

"It is not necessary that these [minority] languages disappear under the weight of others," said Musa Bin Jaafar Bin Hassan, president of the General Conference of UNESCO.

"They should be means of expression that live and exist alongside the major languages of the world."

A link to UNESCO's webpage links further to a PDF document detailing a recent documentary produced by the Danes entitled "In Languages We Live - Voices of the World". From Australia to Vietnam, the documentary illustrates the need for global action to prevent the current rate of loss of 2 languages per month. I can't seem to find any information on distribution/air time for the documentary. If you're interested, I'm sure there's something to be found on Google.