Endangered Languages

A world-first study warns that 1,500 endangered languages could no longer be spoken by the end of this century. The study, led by The Australian National University (ANU), identified predictors that put endangered languages at high risk. Published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, their study charts the widest range of factors ever putting endangered languages under pressure. One finding was that more years of schooling increased the level of language endangerment. The researchers say it shows we need to build curricula that support bilingual education, fostering both indigenous language proficiency as well as the use of regionally-dominant languages. Professor Bromham said that across the 51 factors or predictors we investigated, we also found some really unexpected and surprising pressure points - road density. The more roads there are connecting country to city, and villages to towns, the higher the risk of languages being endangered. It's as if roads are helping dominant languages steamroll over other smaller languages. The researchers say the findings also have important lessons for preserving many of the endangered languages spoken by Australia's First Nations peoples. "Australia has the dubious distinction of having one of the highest rates of language loss worldwide," Professor Felicity Meakins, from the University of Queensland and one of the study's co-authors, said. First Nations languages need funding and support. Australia only spends $20.89 annually per capita of the Indigenous population on languages, which is abysmal compared with Canada's $69.30 and New Zealand's $296.44. Professor Bromham said that as the world enters the UNESCO Decade of Indigenous Languages in 2022, the study's findings were a vital reminder that more action was urgently needed to preserve at-risk languages.