Internet Preserves Dying Languages

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Endangered languages like Welsh, Navajo and Breton have regained speakers and popularity in their communities and are now even considered "cool". Welsh language expert David Crystal said the Internet could change the inevitable extinction of about half of the world’s 6,500 languages.

"The Internet offers endangered languages a chance to have a public voice in a way that would not have been possible before."
"It doesn’t matter how much activism you engage in on behalf of a language if you don’t attract the teenagers, the parents of the next generation of children," Crystal, who was raised speaking English and Welsh, told Reuters.

Languages at risk of extinction are appearing on blogs, instant messaging, chat rooms, video site www.youtube.com and social networking site www.myspace.com.

According to Crystal, there are 50-60 languages in the world which have one last speaker, and around 2,000 have never been written.

Money is needed for this project and this is a particular problem for African and indigenous South American languages, where resources are low and governments favor dominant languages Spanish, French and English. Native American languages, especially Navajo, are more fortunate as they have many virtual communities on the Internet and are funded by the casinos the Navajos run.
source: Reuters