196 Indian languages endangered: UNESCO

It is true that one should be familiar with their mother tongue -speak read write in that language .Only then can we prevent the languages frome becoming extinct.My mother tongue is telugu.We speak only in that language .But I am unable to read or write in that language.Earlier my parents were well versed in that language .So as you said we must aquaint ourselves with our mother tongue and help it to flourish .

how is it possible that language will ever be extinct as people use them always. and in US i don't think there are many dialects in US. there are many nationalities in US which is the reason why there are many languages there but i don't see any local dialect in the US so i don't think that english will be extinct as the are universal language. though people here in my country uses english a lot, it does not pose any threat for the extinction for our local dialects as people usually miss to use their own dialect after some time they are not able to use for example when they work in a foreign country where no one speaks the same dialect. i don't see any problem of language extinction ever in any place in my country.

The native american has lost alot of their culture after the whtemne got here taking them over to teach the white man ways. so very few still tell the stories and still fewer talk the tounge of out old ones!

hi raghul i am 4th generation out of India and i still use Tamil , our whole family does ... my nieces are all studying in tamil schools ... again we are not in india

Yes its definitely a sad thing that 196 Indian languages are in the list of extinction. This should not happen. India is a country which is well known for its rich diversity in languages and if some of the local languages become extinct, then it is really a sad instance that cannot be digested. Govenment has to take some measures to protect the local languages that are on the brim of extinction. Although there are more than 2000 languages being spoken in India( I guess this is the number but not sure) some proper measures have to be taken to protect them. In India some oldest languages according to our Knowledge are Tamil, Sanskrit, Pali and prakrit. Tamil is being recognised as a world language since it enjoys an offical status in India and moreover it is the official language in countries like SriLanka, Singapore and Seychells. It is also being recognised by most settlers in SouthAfrica, Philippines and in other countries. Sanskrit is being protected in India and is being considered as the Language of scholars. But Pali and prakrit holds no recognition and they are on the brink of extinction too. Whenever I hear from my own people that it is not necessary to follow Local Languages, I get irritated and feel like kicking them off. It is absolutely unfair to forget or Ignore your mother tounge. It is equivalent to deserting your own mother and go in pursuit of another lady. Hope people realise the importance of their Mother tongue and practise them. Learning foreign languages are vital and absolutely necessary. But at the same time, care has to be taken that our mother tounge too is being protected and practised. Have a great day and Happy Mylotting. Cheers:-)

very sad to hear that many languages are endangered. but as u said, onlt the respective peoples should take care of their languages. government has very little things to protect from extinction.

Hi dear, First of all thanks to mention about my discussion. From my discussion I gathered that many are valuing their mother tongue only small percentage of people are not bothering much and said that ‘let the language die if not in use’. I think the problem comes when people are dislocating their own place and used to speak the local language where they stay. I have seen here, many malayalee (people from Kerala) couples are talking in hindi with their kids and the kids can’t speak Malayalam at all. I don’t know what is behind in their mind by not teaching their mother tongue to their kids. In my personal opinion, we should respect our mother tongue and teach to our kids too. Let them learn many languages but don’t forget to teach mother tongue.

Hello my friend raghul77ster Ji, It is very much disheatening to know all about this. You are very much right that we all must encourage at least our mother tongue, but to be very frank, niether my son nor his wife talk in their motehr tongue to my grand daughter, they talk in International language English. Next, everybody is depending on e-reading and conversation, which is mostly in english. Here at this myLot also we write in english only and do not have way to write and promote in any otehr language. But i still belief, if this has to happen, nothing can stop. May God bless You and have great time.

it is true that some languages are endangered ones. and perhaps it is our own doing. we are easily influenced by foreign culture and language and tend to ignore our own. we take pride in communicating in some foreign language as a sign of 'how modern we are' and shun our own languages as obsolete and out of fashion. we shun our own culture which spans over thousands of years and instead adopt cultures which are only a few hundred years old. this is how shallow we have become. my dear friend, the day we start taking pride in our culture, heritage and languages we will truly lead the path of progress and development. we cannot go far with 'borrowed' culture and languages.

This is the reason, there is strong ardor for Tamils to save their language. Tamil people can even read Tamil literature written 2000 years back without the help of any dictionary. So they have enought medical recordings and knowledge about their place and culture. Their language has an unmodified record of the world.