Cultural Sustainability, Identity & Humanity

1. Languages
Cultural Sustainability: Identity & Humanity

2. Why language is important
Language is the most central and defining property of a culture.
The language we use forms an important part of our sense of who we are
-- of our identity.

3. Be Ecological!
It’s not just the environment that needs to be protected and sustained.
Languages, identities, and cultures need protection, too!

4. Language death
Like any other life-form, languages can die too.
They are kept alive by the people who speak it.
There are 7,106 living languages.
Most of these are minor languages in danger of extinction
90% of the currently spoken languages will have become extinct by 2050.
A language dies every 14 days.

5. Examples
Communities that have gone extinct as soon as they lost their languages:
• Some Australian languages
• Some indigenous languages of the Americas
• Brazil and Mexico

6. Poetic Activism
Be proud of the language (s) you speak!
Be active. Be poetic.
Express Yourself: Blog in your language, Write poetry in your language, Talk to
others about your language.
This will give permission to others to do the same.

7. How to sustain who you are?
A list of DO’s -- good practices for
individuals and entire communities
(family- or school-sized groups)
A list of DON’T’s -- things individuals
and entire communities should avoid
to prevent languages and cultures
from dying.