Paris, February 20 (No.2001-23)- With half of the world’s 6,000 to 7,000 languages facing the risk of dying out, UNESCO is preparing to observe, for the second time, International Mother Language Day (February 21) as part of its drive to protect the intangible heritage of humanity and preserve cultural diversity.

UNESCO’s supreme ruling body, the General Conference, recognized in 1999 the role of the mother tongue in the development of communication skills, concept formation and creativity, and the fact that mother tongues are the prime vehicles of cultural identity. Celebrating International Mother Language Day is meant to promote both personal development and cultural diversity of humanity. During the same session, the General Conference also passed a Resolution recommending measures to promote multilingualism.

In a message on the occasion of the Day, UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura highlights the importance of protecting languages. He points to the primordial and enduring importance of our mother tongue, “the homeland of our innermost thoughts”. He goes on to emphasize the inestimable cultural and intellectual value of languages: “Each in itself represents a conceptual universe, a dazzling and complex array of sounds and emotions, associations and symbols, representations of movement and time. […] The pattern of today’s linguistic map represents our motley, preciously diverse human heritage: tangible where scripts and books exist, but intangible and vulnerable where other forms are preferred.”

Mr Matsuura furthermore insists on the role of languages in building intercultural dialogue: “Encouraging the learning of languages, developing translation, creating familiarity among cultures through dialogue […] is an expression of peace-building.”

UNESCO’s activities in this area include the B@bel Initiative to promote linguistic balance on the Internet and the sharing of knowledge. B@bel has been set up to develop tools, including translation mechanisms, that will facilitate multilingual communication in cyberspace; help promote public resources allocation to public information providers; and promote access to multilingual public information and knowledge.

“With the upsurge in the means of communication our own period seems to have created more situations of conflict between the languages of the world than ever before, by the same token causing more and more languages to disappear at an accelerating pace”, according to UNESCO’s Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger of Disappearing. The second, updated, edition of the Atlas which is to be published later this year also notes that some “3,000 or more languages still spoken, are now endangered, seriously endangered or dying, with many other still viable languages already showing signs of being potentially endangered and soon entering the phase where they are endangered and facing disappearance.”

The Atlas outlines the processes which lead to the death of languages and provides information about languages that are dying out, showing that languages are disappearing in every part of the world. It also provides examples of successful initiatives to save them.

UNESCO is also conducting studies into some of the most endangered language groups. The studies are being conducted with the aim of contributing to these languages’ revival. They concern: one hitherto unstudied language of the Eastern Espiritu Santo Island (Vanuatu); the Southern Selkup languages of Siberia (Russian Federation); the Austronesian languages of East Timor, the Lisa language of Thailand; and the Aborigine Wanyi language (Australia), which was long thought to be extinct but of which two speakers have recently been found.

UNESCO’s language initiatives also fit in with the Organization’s move to protect the intangible heritage of humanity which includes traditional and popular music, dance, festivals, traditions, craft know-how, oral traditions, and local languages. Because these traditions and practices are at the heart of humanity’s cultural diversity, UNESCO is proposing that the international community take steps to protect these cultural treasures, as it does tangible cultural and natural sites and monuments.

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For the full text of the Director-General’s message www.unesco.org/bpi/eng/unescopress/2001/21-02-01.shtml