Students in Wyoming use tablets to study the Arapaho language.

Joe Amon/The Denver Post via Getty Images

STANDARDS

Common Core: RH.6-8.1, RH.6-8.2, RH.6-8.4, RH.6-8.7, WHST.6-8.4, WHST.6-8.9, RI.6-8.1, RI.6-8.2, RI.6-8.4, RI.6-8.7, W.6-8.4, W.6-8.9, SL.6-8.1

NCSS: Culture • Time, Continuity, and Change • Individual Development and Identity • Individuals, Groups, and Institutions • Global Connections

WORLD NEWS

“Language Is Who We Are”

Around the globe, thousands of languages are at risk of disappearing forever. From Belize to New Zealand, people are embracing innovative efforts to save them.

March 2023

By Brooke Ross

As You Read, Think About: What do languages represent for cultures around the world?

When you hear the word endangered, what comes to mind? A tiger? An elephant? People often talk about animal species at risk of going extinct, but languages can be endangered too—and thousands of them are.

A language is considered endangered when most of its users speak and teach another language to their children in its place, according to Ethnologue. That is an organization that tracks languages. Of the world’s estimated 7,100 languages, nearly half are endangered. What’s more, linguists predict that up to 90 percent of languages today could disappear by the end of this century.

One of the biggest threats to language is globalization. As world governments become increasingly interconnected, languages that are used by the wealthiest and most powerful countries—such as English and Mandarin—are becoming more dominant in business and the media.

Colonization has also endangered many languages and made others extinct. Throughout history, settlers have descended on faraway lands and forced the people they encountered to adopt their languages and customs.

When you hear the word endangered, what comes to mind? A tiger? An elephant? People often talk about animal species at risk of going extinct. But languages can be endangered too. And thousands of them are.

A language is considered endangered when most of its users speak and teach another language to their children in its place, according to Ethnologue. That is an organization that tracks languages. Of the world’s estimated 7,100 languages, nearly half are endangered. And linguists predict that up to 90 percent of languages today could disappear by the end of this century.

One of the biggest threats to language is globalization. World governments are becoming increasingly interconnected. Languages such as English and Mandarin are used by the wealthiest and most powerful countries. So those languages are becoming more dominant in business and the media.

Colonization has also endangered many languages and made others extinct. Throughout history, settlers have moved to faraway lands and forced the people they encountered there to adopt their languages and customs.

1/3

Share of the world’s languages with fewer than 1,000 speakers

^{SOURCE: Ethnologue}

Loss of language is about more than just words. Language represents a society’s history, traditions, and way of life. Preserving language allows communities to maintain their cultural identities, which helps them stay intact and thrive, explains Gabriela Pérez Báez. She is a professor at the University of Oregon who specializes in language revitalization.

“Communities know that language matters for their well-being, for the social cohesion of their community, and for the transmission of knowledge,” she says.

In the past few decades, a number of movements to breathe new life into at-risk languages have taken shape. Indigenous groups around the world are using everything from activism and education to apps and rock music to get more people speaking the language of their ancestors.

“It’s mind-blowing to see the efforts that communities are undertaking to either sustain the use of their languages or reinstate the use of their languages,” Pérez Báez says. “This is a pretty special moment in history.”

Here’s a look at some of those efforts.

Loss of language is about more than just words. Language represents a society’s history, traditions, and way of life. Preserving language allows communities to maintain their cultural identities. This helps them stay together and thrive, explains Gabriela Pérez Báez. She is a professor at the University of Oregon. She specializes in language revitalization.

“Communities know that language matters for their well-being, for the social cohesion of their community, and for the transmission of knowledge,” she says.

Here is a look at some of those efforts.

BELIZE | The Garifuna Language

The Power of Music

In 2007, a Central American band released Wátina, an album that became a hit around the world—not just for its soulful rhythms but also for its powerful message. In the hypnotic title track, the musicians ask in their native language, Garifuna:

I wonder who will speak with me

in Garifuna in times to come?

. . . The time has come for it to

be taught

The time has come for it to

be preserved

Lest we lose it altogether

The band—the Garifuna Collective—was founded by musicians in Belize determined to preserve their language. Garifuna is the native tongue of the Garinagu people, with about 100,000 speakers today.

In 2007, a Central American band released the album Wátina. It became a hit around the world, not just for its soulful rhythms but also for its powerful message. In the hypnotic title track, the musicians ask in their native language, Garifuna:

I wonder who will speak with me

in Garifuna in times to come?

. . . The time has come for it to

be taught

The time has come for it to

be preserved

Lest we lose it altogether

The band is called the Garifuna Collective. It was founded by musicians in Belize determined to preserve their language. Garifuna is the native tongue of the Garinagu people. There are about 100,000 speakers today.

Jim McMahon/Mapman®

The Garinagu descend from a group of West Africans who were forcibly taken from their continent in the 1600s to be enslaved in the Americas. However, the ship carrying them capsized in the Caribbean Sea, and its survivors escaped to nearby islands. They intermarried with Indigenous people, forming the Garinagu culture. Eventually, they moved to Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

Still, the Garinagu population was small to begin with, and by the 20th century, Garifuna was in decline. Younger generations mostly used Spanish in daily life.

To inspire Garinagu youth to learn Garifuna, the Garifuna Collective set out to make the language cool. The band writes passionate lyrics in Garifuna and pairs them with punta rock, a genre of music that combines Indigenous sounds with electric guitars and bass.

“I hope that our efforts will not only preserve Garifuna culture but also reenergize a generation,” one of the band’s co-founders, Andy Palacio, said after Wátina’s release.

Although the language is still endangered, today there are Garifuna music producers, Garifuna band competitions in high schools across Central America, and countless TikTok videos celebrating the language.

The Garinagu descend from a group of West Africans who were forcibly taken from their continent in the 1600s to be enslaved in the Americas. However, the ship carrying them capsized in the Caribbean Sea. Its survivors escaped to nearby islands. They intermarried with Indigenous people, forming the Garinagu culture. Eventually, they moved to Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

Still, the Garinagu population was small to begin with. By the 20th century, Garifuna was in decline. Younger generations mostly used Spanish in daily life.

To inspire Garinagu youth to learn Garifuna, the Garifuna Collective set out to make the language cool. The band writes passionate lyrics in Garifuna. It pairs them with punta rock, a genre of music that combines Indigenous sounds with electric guitars and bass.

“I hope that our efforts will not only preserve Garifuna culture but also reenergize a generation,” Andy Palacio said after Wátina’s release. He was one of the band’s co-founders.

The language is still endangered. But today there are Garifuna music producers and Garifuna band competitions in high schools across Central America. Countless TikTok videos also celebrate the language.

NEW ZEALAND | The Māori Language

A Petition for Māori

Jim McMahon/Mapman®

On September 14, 1972, dozens of young Māori—Indigenous peoples of New Zealand— marched to the country’s parliament building. They presented lawmakers with a huge stack of papers known today as the Māori Language Petition—a community-wide effort to save their language.

Hana Te Hemara and other Māori college students had spent two years canvassing the country to collect more than 30,000 signatures. The petition called for Māori to be taught in all New Zealand schools.

“We are objecting to being phased out,” Te Hemara said in 1972. “Māori language has a natural heritage in this country.”

For centuries, Māori was the dominant language of what is now New Zealand, but it began to decline in use after the region was colonized by the United Kingdom in 1841. As the British set up a new government, they made English the official language. For generations, the Māori language was suppressed or banned in schools.

On September 14, 1972, dozens of young Māori—Indigenous peoples of New Zealand—marched to the country’s parliament building. They presented lawmakers with a huge stack of papers known today as the Māori Language Petition. It was a community-wide effort to save their language.

“We are objecting to being phased out,” Te Hemara said in 1972. “Māori language has a natural heritage in this country.”

For centuries, Māori was the dominant language of what is now New Zealand. But it began to decline in use after the region was colonized by the United Kingdom in 1841. As the British set up a new government, they made English the official language. For generations, the Māori language was suppressed or banned in schools.

23

Number of languages in regular use among more than half the world’s population

^{SOURCE: Ethnologue}

By the early 1970s, only 5 percent of Māori children could speak their native tongue. Te Hemara and other young Māori started to realize that they had been denied an important part of their culture. Inspired by civil rights marches and antiwar protests around the world, the idea for the petition was born.

The document was favorably received on that day in 1972, but little changed. So Te Hemara and other activists continued to speak out.

Their efforts eventually paid off. In 1982, New Zealand’s government introduced a language immersion program for Māori preschoolers in which classes were taught primarily in Māori. And in 1987, Māori was named an official language of New Zealand, along with English.

Today Māori people make up 16 percent of New Zealand’s population. Their language has roughly 127,000 speakers, and that number continues to grow. There are Māori-language radio stations and a TV channel.

In addition, New Zealand’s government recently detailed plans to fulfill the Māori Language Petition’s original goal: to provide Māori lessons in all of the country’s schools by 2025, so that every citizen, regardless of heritage, can learn to speak it.

The document was favorably received on that day in 1972. But little changed. So Te Hemara and other activists continued to speak out.

Today Māori people make up 16 percent of New Zealand’s population. Their language has roughly 127,000 speakers. And that number continues to grow. There are Māori-language radio stations and a TV channel.

In addition, New Zealand’s government recently detailed plans to fulfill the Māori Language Petition’s original goal. It will provide Māori lessons in all of the country’s schools by 2025. Every citizen, regardless of heritage, will be able to learn to speak it.

UNITED STATES | The Arapaho Language

Turning to Technology

Jim McMahon/Mapman®

For tribal elders of the Arapaho, their native language of the same name is deeply ingrained in their identity and history.

But of the estimated 11,000 Native Americans who make up the Northern Arapaho of Wyoming and the Southern Arapaho of Oklahoma, only about 1,000 can speak Arapaho fluently. And nearly all of those speakers are over 50, putting the language at severe risk of disappearing when they die.

Like many Indigenous languages in the U.S., Arapaho began to decline in use in the late 1800s. The U.S. government drove Native Americans off their land and forced them onto reservations. Then it ordered Indigenous children into boarding schools to strip them of their cultures. They were forced to learn and speak only English, a practice that continued for about a century. As a result, many children grew into adults who no longer spoke their native tongues.

Today’s Arapaho elders want to change that. To motivate more of the younger generation to learn Arapaho, they are turning to something kids and teens already use: technology.

In 2016, Arapaho leaders teamed up with a technology company to build an Arapaho-language app. The app includes recordings of about 650 words spoken by tribal members. Today students on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Arapahoe, Wyoming, use the app in classrooms. Tribal members hope the effort will create new Arapaho speakers.

“I always stress to young Arapaho that the Arapaho language is who we are,” says tribal elder Wayne C’Hair. “We have Arapaho culture [and] our own way of life.”

For tribal elders of the Arapaho, their native language of the same name is deeply ingrained in their identity and history.

There are an estimated 11,000 Native Americans who make up the Northern Arapaho of Wyoming and the Southern Arapaho of Oklahoma. But only about 1,000 can speak Arapaho fluently. And nearly all of those speakers are over 50. That puts the language at severe risk of disappearing when they die.

Like many Indigenous languages in the U.S., Arapaho began to decline in use in the late 1800s. The U.S. government drove Native Americans off their land. It forced them onto reservations. Then it ordered Indigenous children into boarding schools to strip them of their cultures. They were forced to learn and speak only English. That practice continued for about a century. As a result, many children grew into adults who no longer spoke their native tongues.

Today’s Arapaho elders want to change that. They want to motivate more of the younger generation to learn Arapaho. So they are turning to something kids and teens already use: technology.

“I always stress to young Arapaho that the Arapaho language is who we are,” says tribal elder Wayne C’Hair. “We have Arapaho culture [and] our own way of life.”