At least 43% of the languages in the world are endangered. We wanted to put a spotlight on two very different endangered languages, Cornish and Ainu.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Cornish<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>– UK<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Cornish is a southwestern Brittonic\u00a0language, part of the Celtic language family. Its status is currently \u2018revived\u2019, as it became extinct as a first language in Cornwall in the late 18th<\/sup>\u00a0Century. A revival began in the early 20th<\/sup>\u00a0Century, which changed its status from extinct, to endangered.\u00a0Cornish is regarded by the people of Cornwall as an important part of Cornish identify, culture and heritage.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Cornish is currently recognised under the European\u00a0Charter for\u00a0Regional or\u00a0Minority\u00a0Languages\u00a0(ECRML). It has a growing number of minority language speakers, as well as a couple of parents attempting to create new first language speakers by teaching their children the language from birth.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Along with Welsh and Breton, Cornish is\u00a0descended\u00a0directly from the\u00a0Common Brittonic language that was spoken throughout much of Great Britain before the English language came to dominate. Cornish was the main language of Cornwall for centuries until it was pushed out by English. Cornish contained to function as a common community language (vernacular) in parts of Cornwall until the mid 18th<\/sup>\u00a0century. There is evidence of the language persisting into the 19th<\/sup>\u00a0century, when it became classified as\u00a0extinct.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n A process to revive the language began in the early 20th<\/sup>\u00a0century, and in 2010 UNESCO announced that its former classification of\u00a0extinct\u00a0was no longer accurate. Since the revival of the language, some Cornish textbooks and literature have been published, and there are an increasing number of people studying the language, as well as a small number of children brought up to be bilingual native speakers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Ainu<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>– Japan<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Ainu is a language isolate, spoken by the Ainu people of Northern Japan. A language isolate means that it has no proven\u00a0genealogical relationship\u00a0with any\u00a0other language family, although there have been numerous attempts\u00a0to find one in the case of Ainu. Varieties of Ainu are considered a group of closely related languages, or divergent dialects of a single language isolate. The only surviving dialect of Ainu is Hokkaido Ainu, which is listed by UNESCO as critically endangered. Varieties of Ainu from\u00a0Sakhalin\u00a0and the Kuril Islands are now extinct, although evidence suggests that Ainu was also spoken in Northern Honshu in the past. However,\u00a0if this was the case,\u00a0it is now\u00a0long since\u00a0extinct there too.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Because of the history of colonialization policy employed by the modern Japanese government in the Hokkaido area, the number of Ainu language speakers has decreased, and very few people can speak the language fluently in daily life. The policy demanded assimilation of the Ainu people, and included placing Ainu children in schools where they were only allowed to learn Japanese.\u00a0Because of this,\u00a0Ainu people are hard to find, because they tend to hide their identity\u00a0and two thirds of Ainu youth do not actually know they are Ainu. Because Ainu students were strongly discouraged from speaking their language at school, it has been challenging for the Ainu language to be revitalised.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n However, more recently, the Japanese government has acknowledged the Ainu people as an indigenous population, and as of 1997, they were given rights under\u00a0the\u00a0United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) to their culture, heritage, and language. After this, the Ainu\u00a0Cultural\u00a0Promotion\u00a0Act of 1997 was tasked with Ainu language education, promoting the\u00a0language\u00a0by\u00a0training instructors, advanced\u00a0language classes and creation and development of language materials.\u00a0On 15 February 2019,\u202fJapan\u202fapproved a bill to recognize the Ainu language for the first time, so hopefully this will encourage the revitalisation of the language.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Did you know about either of these endangered languages? Let us know on our social media pages!\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n