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A spoken language “disappears every 2 weeks”

A spoken language “disappears every 2 weeks”

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Spoken languages are disappearing around the world at a rate of one every two weeks.

That’s one of the worrying statistics being discussed at a UN conference on indigenous languages taking place this week.

The expert group meeting organized by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) is focussing on finding out why languages are being lost, and how to revitalize them.

Clint Bracknell is a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney, and speaks the language of the Noongar people, of Western Australia.

Matthew Wells asked him what was behind the loss of world languages.

Duration: 3’45”

Photo Credit
UN Photo