This week again many articles on languages have been published in the international press.

In France, the Nouvel Observateur has reported the existence of so far unidentified Indian communities in Peru. The country’s authorities have announced on November 12th the presence of a dozen communities in the southeastern Amazonian region. Spears, arrows, plant fiber bags and other utensils were found, which attest to the presence of “groups living in voluntary isolation and without contact” with the outside world.

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In the United Kingdom, the November 16th edition of The Guardian, as for it, relates the case of Bivio, Switzerland, a small village of 200 inhabitants where everyone speaks several languages and dialects : Italian is the official language, but different varieties of German are also in use, as well as various dialects of Romansh. At the day nursery, a different language is spoken each day of the week, and at the grocer’s shop, even though everyone speaks his own mother tongue, all seem to understand each other without difficulty…

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In India, finally, the November 17th edition of the Assam Tribune online devotes an article to the languages of Arunachal Pradesh, the northeastern mountainous State, at the eastern extremity of the Himalayas, bordering Bhutan, China and Myanmar.

Linguistically speaking this State is one of the richest regions of India, with 26 major tribes and more than 100 distinct subgroups. But this diversity is endangered because 36 of those languages and dialects are now at risk of disappearing.

While local authorities seem to have assessed the urgency of the situation, everything remains to be done to document, preserve and revitalize these tribal languages threatened by the spread of languages of wider communication.

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