Endangered! 130 languages under threat in Russia
Published: 20 February, 2009, 20:36
Over 130 languages in Russia are in danger of extinction and 20 of them are already dead, according to UNESCO.
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Published: 20 February, 2009, 20:36
Over 130 languages in Russia are in danger of extinction and 20 of them are already dead, according to UNESCO.
There is no doubt at all about the track record of minority languages in Russian-controlled territory. Simply by projecting the trends that already existed under Soviet Russian administration, if the Soviet Union had lasted perhaps another 25 years, the Estonian language would have been amongst those under threat. The use of the language in its homeland would have become ever more marginalized, education and publishing in the language would have continued to be phased out, native Estonians would have soon become a powerless minority in their own homeland, and virtually no business would have been able to be transacted in the language any more. Having already been driven close to the brink by 1991, no one should now wonder why Estonians (and Latvians) feel a special need to protect their language, and facilitate its recovery to normal levels in their now-free homelands.