language extinction Archives

How does COVID-19 threaten endangered languages?

June 11, 2020 || Julie Anderson

Tags: Andaman Islands, Anvita Abbi, COVID-19, endangered languages, Great Andamanese, heritage language, language extinction, pandemic, speaker community

Endangered languages often exist in a situation where they have a dwindling group of mostly older speakers, and their community may be marginalized or otherwise not valued and supported. Because of this already precarious situation, the loss of life among that final group of speakers brings a double tragedy: loss of loved ones, and also […]

Will climate change kill linguistic diversity? Or save it?

January 10, 2019 || Manuel Maqueda

Categories: Language and Linguistics, News

Tags: climate, disaster preparedness, language extinction, linguistic diversity, machine translation, refugees

Hidden in plain sight In 2010, I traveled to Los Angeles to meet thought leaders and funders, and raise awareness about the issue of plastic pollution – which at the time was a largely unknown problem, and one almost completely absent from the societal discussion and the mainstream media. At a fundraiser event, I happened […]