A people without its language is like a bell without its tongue – silent: let us preserve Indigenous languages

Today, according to the UN, there are about 6 000 languages ​​globally, and 43% of them are endangered. Only a few hundred languages ​​play a prominent role in education systems and in the public sector, and less than a hundred languages ​​are used in the digital domain.

Languages ​​play a crucial role in preserving identity of a person, groups of people and ensuring their peaceful coexistence. They serve as one of the strategic factors in making progress towards sustainable development and harmonious relationships at the global and local levels. Every year, by decision of the General Conference of UNESCO, 21 February is celebrated as International Mother Language Day.

How it all began

Following the designation of this International Day, the UN has increased its efforts to draw attention to language endangerment. In 2007, the UN General Assembly proclaimed 2008 the International Year of Languages, and on 19 December 2016, declared 2019 the International Year of Indigenous Languages ​​to point out the pressing issue of the loss of such languages ​​and the need to preserve and revive them, as well as encourage their study and mastery.

Finally, on 18 December 2019, the UN General Assembly proclaimed the period from 2022 to 2032 the International Decade of Indigenous Languages ​​to draw global attention to the plight of many Indigenous languages ​​and mobilize stakeholders and resources to preserve, revive and promote them.

FAO and Indigenous languages

FAO has six official languages. In the framework of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages, the FAO Indigenous Peoples Unit is translating one of the organization’s founding documents, the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security, into different Indigenous languages. These Voluntary Guidelines are the first comprehensive global legal instrument on this subject, resulting from intergovernmental negotiations.

The document is currently available in 22 languages including Nepali, Miskito, Hindi, Albanian, Indonesian, Laothian and Amharic. In December 2022, FAO launched the VGGT translation in Sadri and Kurukh, Indigenous languages ​​mainly spoken in India.

The Decade of Indigenous Languages ​​in Russia

On 14 February 2022, the Government of the Russian Federation approved the action plan (in Russian) for the International Decade of Indigenous Languages.

In total, the plan provides for more than 60 events, which are divided into six thematic sections dedicated to improving public administration, education and teacher training, science, digitalization and book publishing. In particular, it is planned to develop keyboard layouts, fonts and mobile applications in national languages, create a virtual museum of the traditional culture of the Indigenous small-numbered Peoples of Siberia and the Far East, conduct tours of theater troupes and other events.

The All-Russian Ethno-Dictation in the Indigenous languages, which took place on 18 February 2022, gave birth to the Decade in Russia.

According to the Federal Agency for Ethnic Affairs of the Russian Federation (FADN) (in Russian), some of the events of the plan will be held regularly. For example, an international conference dedicated to the preservation of Indigenous languages will take place every two years. The All-Russian Congress of Teachers of the Native Language and Literature of the Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East will be held every three years. Annually, the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia and the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences will conduct research on the sociolinguistic situation of Indigenous languages and scientific research on specific topics.

Projects for the preservation of Indigenous languages in Russia

Here are some examples of projects aimed at preserving Indigenous languages of Russia:

• The project "Digitalization of the linguistic and cultural heritage of the Indigenous Peoples of the Arctic" of the UNESCO Department of the Northeastern Federal University named after M.K. Ammosov. The project also collects information about Indigenous languages, recorded and published native languages TV lessons (the Yukaghir, Even, Evenk, Chukchi, and Dolgan languages), as well as other educational materials. 

• The "Minority Languages of Russia" (in Russian) website, based on the Laboratory of Study and Preservation of Minority Languages of the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, is a publicly accessible Internet information resource containing materials on the structure and use of minority languages of Russia and their local variants. The current version of the site presents materials on 162 Indigenous languages of Russia. The site provides the following information about each language: genealogy, distribution area, number of native speakers, language functioning, development dynamics, etc. 

• The interactive atlas of the Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East: Languages and Cultures (in Russian) makes you discover the culture, languages, traditions, but first and foremost, the outstanding Indigenous representatives. In the atlas, in addition to historical references, general and ethnographic information, you can find lists of fiction in the language spoken by a particular people, and watch / listen to recordings of native speakers in the media library (in Russian). 

• The KMNSOYUZ language portal (in Russian) publishes news about Indigenous languages. Special attention is paid to the section devoted to the digital practice of Indigenous languages (in Russian) with links to mobile applications for learning native languages and online translators, and a media library (in Russian) that contains links to cartoons, clips, audio stories and podcasts in Indigenous languages. 

• Children of the Arctic. This information and educational portal is designed to navigate throught the Indigenous Peoples of the North that live in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation. Special attention should be paid to the  YouTube project channel (in Russian), which publishes monologues of famous representatives of the Peoples of the Arctic (in Russian), i.e. philologists, craftsmen, and artists, about their lives, work, and traditions; karaoke of the Peoples of the Arctic,as well as language courses (in Russian) and cartoons.

Do you speak an Indigenous language?

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