Can we afford to lose any more languages?

LANGUAGES speak to our identities, our histories, our traditional knowledge and our world views. In some cases, they may be the only tangible thing linking us to our ancestors.

Yet under a changing climate, they are also more at risk than ever.

Half of the languages that we speak today will disappear or become seriously endangered by the end of this century, according to the United Nations. There are many factors that influence this, but more recently climate change is emerging as a significant cause.

Communities forced to migrate due to environmental disasters often end up not passing their language on to future generations, if another language in their new home is more dominant.

Some of the most linguistically-diverse countries in the world are in the Indo-Pacific and cruelly, this region is also known for being particularly prone to environmental disasters.

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Ria Ernunsari is the Senior Commissioning Editor, 360info Southeast Asia