Language Endangerment Threatens Phonetic Diversity

Abstract

Language Endangerment at a Critical Point A pandemic of linguicide has been decimating minority languages all over the world at an alarming rate. Its virulence has reached such a velocity that UNESCO (2003) projected that 90% of the world’s languages will be dead by the year 2100. Statistically speaking, according to McWorther (2003), “a language dies roughly every two weeks.” Currently, 2,923 of the world’s 7,111 languages are in serious stages of endangerment (Eberhard et al., 2019). The situation is so dire that the United Nations (UN) called attention to it by declaring 2019 the International Year of Endangered Language (IYIL 19). Now, the UN is taking an unprecedented step by declaring the decade from 2022 to 2032 the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (IDIL 22-32; see bit.ly/39uudCv). This article highlights what language endangerment entails for phonetic diversity and what experts have done and are doing to stem the tide. It also highlights speech synthesis as a new model of language documentation that can help preserve phonetic diversity even if a critically endangered language breathes its last. Speech synthesis is a technique used so that smart devices can speak and understand language. Siri and Alexa are among the products of speech synthesis. More details are given in A Simpler Speech Synthesis Model.