It is in the French press that we find this week an interesting article on the topic of endangered languages. Newspaper Libération has published an article entitled «Occupation : spotter of rare languages», in which three linguists are interviewed :

– François Jacquesson, director of the LACITO research center (CNRS, Langues et Civilisations à Tradition Orale)

– Hilda Koopman, professor at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles), and visiting professor at ENS (Ecole Normale Supérieure).

– Dominique Sportiche, professor at ENS and UCLA.

Different questions are considered, questions that the general public may have on the topic of endangered languages: what is a language and how many are there in the world? Where do we find them in great numbers? Why do languages die out? And why should we preserve the memory of them?

A video is also available, in which Francis Jacquesson explains the concept of dialect continuum, a key concept to try to understand where the boundary between language and dialect should be settled. He also talks about the practice of multilingualism in different parts of the world, a theme dear to Sorosoro.

Towards the end of the video there is a real gem, a sound archive recorded by Georges Dumézil in which we hear a speaker of Ubykh, a Caucasian language extinct since the 1980s, which had more than 80 consonants… and probably only one vowel!

Read the full article and watch the video (French)