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World Christian media urge languages protection as UN warns

Christian communicators have backed a call by the United Nations urging urgent protection of indigenous languages that are in danger of extinction, reports CISA News.

The World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) appealed for concerted action to protect linguistic diversity and to promote multilingualism. Rescuing endangered languages keeps traditions alive and inspires knowledge about, and respect for, the past, present and future, WACC said.

The UN on Thursday launched the International Year of Languages with a warning that every two weeks on average one language disappears somewhere in the world.

The rapid rate at which languages are disappearing threatens more than half the world’s 6,700 spoken languages with extinction, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said.

In a message marking International Mother Language Day, which was also celebrated today, UNESCO director-general Koïchiro Matsuura stressed the importance of all languages to everyday life.

“Far from being a field reserved for analysis by specialists, languages lie at the heart of all social, economic and cultural life,” he said, explaining that �?Languages matter!’ is the UNESCO slogan for the International Year.

International Mother Language Day has been celebrated on 21 February each year since 2000, and this year UNESCO said it had placed special emphasis on international instruments and standards that encourage multilingualism.

The agency warned that when a language fades, so does a part of the world’s cultural tapestry, adding that globalization is placing many languages under ever greater threat. Today, experts estimate that 96 per cent of the world’s languages are spoken by only 4 per cent of the total population.

“Opportunities, traditions, memory, unique modes of thinking and expression ­ valuable resources for ensuring a better future are also lost,” UNESCO said in a statement.

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[02/25/2008]

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