1. The Language Box
…or how do we prevent a tragedy caused by the
death of half of the existing languages?
By: Marija Grujovska

2. The problem
 There are around 6000
languages spoken today.
If nothing is done, half of
those languages will
disappear by the end of
the century.
 With a language dying
every two weeks, the
world today is facing a
LANGUAGE
EXTINCTION ON A
MASSIVE SCALE.

3. Why should we care?
 “Languages are not simply bodies of vocabulary or sets of grammatical rules, but
"old growth forests of the mind“, for the many and unique cultures of the world
reflect different ways of being, thinking, and knowing.” – Wade Davis ("On
endangered cultures“ – TED Talks)
 Losing the wide spectrum of languages, we lose the world’s creative force on
which depend the development and existence of humanity.
Creative
Linguistic Intellectual
problem
diversity diversity
solving
 More importantly, when a language dies, a whole culture goes to the grave.
Language Culture
death death
 A death of a language represents both a scientific and a cultural tragedy

4. The struggle
 There are many organizations around
Globalization the world that have made a great
Modernization effort to reduce the rate of language
extinction.
 UNESCO, Committee of
Endangered Languages and Their
Assimilation Preservation (CELP) and The
acculturation Endangered Language Fund are
just some of them…
 Over the years they have been
documenting and revitalizing the
endangered languages, encouraging
Language the indigenous people to bilingualism
death
and raising awareness among the
endangered communities and
worldwide.

5. The idea
 The Language Box = a huge internet database consisting written,
audio or video data of all the world’s endangered and already
extinct languages.
Written
data
The
Audio
data language
box
Video
data

6. How does it work?
 Linguists from all around the world collect written (including
some translations, notes etc.), audio or video records, depending
on the conditions.
 All the data is stored in The Language Box and is available on the
internet.
Audio
and video Written
material records
The
Language
Box

7. Is it effective?
• Selected data could be used by the
media and made into campaigns,
documentaries, short movies etc.
As
• It would be available for everyone
prevention to see and raise awareness about
the importance and value of
language diversity
Purpose of The
Language Box
• All collected material would be
available to all the scientists in the
As a world and be used for further
reaserch
scientific • The data would help science in the
tool field of linguistics, anthropology,
ethnology, psychology, computer
engineering etc.

8. Is it innovative?
 While I was doing my research on existing similar ideas, I found Ethnologue – an
excellent encyclopedic reference work, cataloging all of the world’s 6,909 known living
languages.
 http://www.ethnologue.com/
 However, there are several crucial differences between Ethnologue and The Language
Box.
The Language
Ethnologue
Box
would provide a list of
provides a list of all endangered and
existing languages already extinct
languages
would provide the
provides a huge
actual, raw material
bibliography of data
that would be free and
about and connected
available for everyone
to world languages
to use and explore

9. Goals and targets
To collect the scattered
data in one place and
To make the world
prevent from losing them,
understand the meaning
serve as a tool and
and importance of
reference for scientists all
linguistic diversity and
over the world and help
language itself
develop certain sciences
concerning language.
Goals and
targets of
The
Language
Box

10. Potential impact
 Ultimately, The Language Box would help prevent a cultural and
scientific tragedy. It would help the world function in its own,
beautiful, diverse way. It would help preserve the linguistic and
cultural diversity, representing a never-ending well of different
ways to be human, all sorts of knowledge and philosophy. It would
make the world a place where ideas are born and searched in the
differences. These ideas would later contribute to the well-being of
all the people on the planet.
 “The world deserves to exist in a diverse way. We can find a way to
live in a multicultural, pluralistic world, where all the wisdom of
all the peoples can contribute to our collective well-being” – Wade
Davis ("On endangered cultures“ – TED Talks)