Many ethnic minority languages facing extinction (fwd)

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Many ethnic minority languages facing extinction

Published on Sep 27, 2004
http://nationmultimedia.com/page.news.php3?clid=2&id=121543&usrsess=1

At least 14 languages spoken in Thailand are on the brink of extinction,
a linguist at Mahidol University said at a recent meeting.

Suwilai Premsrirat, who heads Mahidol’s Institute of Language and
Culture for Rural Development, blamed the education system as the main
reason that the languages were at risk of fading away.

The country’s education regulations require that lessons at schools be
conducted in the country’s official language, Thai, although some
schools also offer Chinese and English-language programmes.

“The Education Ministry should pay more attention to ethnic-minority
languages and the Culture Ministry should do something before they
disappear,” Suwilai said.

She said some languages, such as the Chong language spoken in
Chanthaburi, had been spoken in what is now Thailand for more than
1,000 years.

“Now only some 500 people can speak Chong and most are over 50 years
old,” she said.

Mahidol University has been trying to revive Chong in Khao Khitchakood
by introducing the language as a subject among primary students in
grades three, four and five, she said.

Suwilai said there were in fact more than 60 minority languages spoken
in Thailand, but most were used by very small groups of people.

She said the threat of language extinction existed across the world, as
the mass media, controlled by a few powerful countries, penetrated into
smaller nations and affected local people’s lives.

Suwilai quoted American linguist Michel Krauss as estimating that 90 per
cent of languages around the globe were in crisis, with only major and
official national languages safe from the risk of extinction.

“It’s [almost to the point where] a language is going to disappear every
day,” she said.

Pakamas Jaichalard

The Nation

Nakhon Pathom