Who wants to lose their mother tongue? (fwd link)

[Phillip E Cash Cash]

Who wants to lose their mother tongue?

Published on : 22 February 2011 - 4:12pm | By Heleen Sittig	
Netherlands

A large proportion of the world's 6,000 languages are teetering on the
edge of extinction. Even optimistic linguists expect half of these
languages to disappear within 100 years. Pessimists say nine out of
ten languages are faced with extinction.

We're talking about languages spoken by small groups of people. In
some cases just a few thousand, or even as few as 15 people, according
to linguist Pieter Muysken from the University of Nijmegen. He is
doing research in Bolivia, where there are 34 languages still left.
But he expects most of them will disappear in the near future. The
languages are not being passed on to the next generation. But, you
might ask yourself, if a language is spoken by so few people anyway is
that really such a tragedy?

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http://www.rnw.nl/africa/article/who-wants-lose-their-mother-tongue-0