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of protections for those languages and their speakers. It recognizes the causes of language endangerment discussed above, including conquest and invasion, hostile state policies, and economic factors. it also acknowledges the benefits of preserving endangered languages, including their importance for identity, culture, and communication. the Barcelona declaration calls on states to implement protections for minority language speakers to use their mother tongue in all aspects of public life, including the justice system, government administrative, education, and the economic marketplace. It also emphasizes both individual and collective rights to use any language in the private sphere and to maintain a culture via language. The document acknowledges the economic factors that go into a speaker’s decision to abandon their indigenous language but encourages states to facilitate the integration, with a maintenance of culture, of minority language speakers into the dominant community, instead of their assimilation. 106 Although the Barcelona declaration was presented to UNESCO, it has not been adopted in any formal manner by the organization and thus has no legal standing; it may, however, provide the committee with ideas about measures to take to protect endangered languages in the future. Questions a Resolution Must Answer (QARMA) 1. Should the protection of endangered 2. languages even be of significant importance for the Social, Cultural and Humanitarian committee in the first place? Given the urgency of the situation and the difficulty of stopping the forces of language endangerment, should the primary focus be on language documentation or language revitalization? 3. What measures can the international community take to encourage indigenous populations to maintain their language in the face of discrimination and globalizing economic forces? Can the causes of language endangerment be combatted to prevent languages from decay? 4. Who should take the lead in protecting endangered languages: states, nongovernmental organizations, or local 5. activists? How should the efforts be distributed between these different groups? How can the Social, Cultural and Humanitarian committee ensure the protection of endangered languages in international resolutions, declarations, and covenants? Key Actors and Positions the three sets of players that are most important for the future of endangered languages are indigenous populations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that work to protect endangered languages, and state governments. All three groups must work together to ensure that measures to document and revitalize endangered languages are implemented successfully. Without the support of the language community, for example, it is impossible to collect data for archives and to implement education courses. Without the involvement of NGOs, documentation and revitalization plans will lack the expertise to be effective. Finally, without the backing of governments, NGOs will lack the funding required to enact these programs and will be powerless against prevailing discriminatory attitudes. thus, any solution to the problem of language endangerment must involve a collaboration among indigenous peoples, NGOs, and governments. There are a few nongovernmental organizations that are especially active in the fight to save endangered languages, including Google’s Endangered Language Project, which is being operated by the First Peoples’ Cultural Council and the 28 Melbourne Host Directorate PTY LTD | Office of Media and Design
Institute for Language Information and Technology at Eastern Michigan University. The most prominent NGO is the SIL, a nonprofit that publishes Ethnologue: Languages of the World, the encyclopedia from where much of the data in this background guide comes. The SIL is a faith-based organization whose goal is to document and revitalize endangered languages across the world. Founded in 1934, the SIL now has a staff of over five thousand and is currently studying almost three thousand different languages. 107 the positions that your countries hold with regard to the protection of language endangerment are not easily divisible along regional lines. Governments will instead follow the official or unofficial linguistic policy that they hold for the languages within their borders. Many nations, including the united States and much of Europe, have strict unilingual policies, only recognizing one official language; while these nations would not necessarily oppose language revitalization efforts, they would be unlikely to support a set of solutions that involve the recognition of endangered languages on a national level. Countries with multiple official languages, like much of Africa and Asia, would be more eager to propose solutions that involve the national recognition of endangered languages. Some countries have primary or secondary education in certain indigenous languages, whereas others only teach in the dominant language; while the former would be in favor of increased minority language education, the latter may not. Another factor that will determine your country’s position on the protection of endangered languages is the number and conditions of dying languages within its borders. A country like Australia, for example, which has a few languages that are critically endangered and has historically made no effort to protect those languages, would most likely be eager to institute programs to document fully and revitalize its dying languages, because it would be manageable given the number of languages remaining and would show the government’s commitment to the indigenous population. A country like Nigeria, however, may be less inclined to support endangered languages initiatives because there are so many indigenous languages that it would have to protect. Furthermore, faced with a high level of poverty and low levels of education, the Nigerian government may not want to spend its valuable resources on such programs. Finally, your nation’s policy must consider benefits that your country would experience from endangered language protection initiatives. A country that already has a strong tourism industry due to its dominant culture or natural resources, like the United States, would not gain much in terms of culture and tourism from protecting its indigenous languages; a nation with less tourism, like many Pacific Islands, may gain international recognition for its unique cultures and more foreign visitors if it chooses to protect its endangered languages. When developing your country’s policy on language endangerment, it is important to take all of these different factors into consideration. Just because your country has a strict unilingual policy, for example, does not necessarily mean that you should oppose all protections for endangered languages. A country with a thriving travel industry may support tourism as a method of endangered languages protection, even if it does not wish to see such measures instituted within its borders. The possible solutions for the problem of endangered languages are so broad that the question is not whether or not your country supports documentation and revitalization but which specific policies you think should be enacted. Suggestions for Further Research As a starting point, i would encourage you to do some research on the problem of language endangerment in general. UNESCO has a good overview of the 29 Melbourne Host Directorate PTY LTD | Office of Media and Design
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