The time has come! Sorosoro has launched its website and it’s yours to enjoy. And we’re counting on you to help us enhance it…

Some may say “a website on endangered languages across the globe, what a strange idea!” At a time when the trend is to learn English, Chinese or Arabic, worrying about those “small” languages from far away lands and cultures may seem futile…

To these people, our response would be: why think “monolingual?”, when human beings have the ability to master of several languages? Why limit our minds to the horizons of only our own native languages or the most widely spoken languages when the rest of the world has so much to teach us?

In many places around the world, especially those that are geographical, commercial or cultural crossroads numerous languages of all sorts are often spoken side-by-side without causing the slightest problem. People in these areas are often as at ease with French, English or Spanish, as they are with Yoruba, Gbari, Shina or Burushaski. Indeed, all of this linguistic variety is not at all incompatible: one may communicate in widely spoken languages while continuing to take an interest in less widespread ones.

What is actually at stake here is diversity, and the writer Victor Ségalen’s phrase, which adorns our website, states it quite simply: when diversity shrinks, so does humanity.

If one day the world came to speak but one single language, eat the same type of food, dress in the same manner, and think the same way, it would then offer but one cultural model  — and we would mourn the corresponding loss of diversity.

Let’s make sure this doesn’t happen!

Our desire is to raise awareness relating to the question of diversity by making available to the public a rich repository of linguistic and cultural content including texts, maps, pictures, sounds, and videos… And gradually, we will assemble a body of information describing languages from around the world in all their diversity and variety.

Our videos will also come to form a “TV of languages”, which will include films made all over the world. We hope that by diving into this pool of cultures, and by displaying the rich diversity they represent, viewers will also notice that beyond the external differences, underlying universals of human cultures and values are never far away.

Of course, no website is perfect, and this one may not immediately meet the expectations of all users. For example, the general public may find it too specialized while researchers may find it to be too basic. And there will undoubtedly be oversights or mistakes, due mostly to the lack of resources, or at times our limited access to them. We are therefore counting on your contributions to make the website more complete, to point out missing information, and to supply additional information wherever possible. All suggestions will be welcome.

This website is your website! Its doors are wide open!   So come on in and enjoy!