Topic: Preservation of Endangered Languages
Country: Bolivia
Delegate Name: Makenna Wingo
School: Mattawan High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Bolivia position papers GLIMUN 2013 committees
“Linguists estimate that of the world’s 6000-7000 spoken languages more than half will go extinct within three or four generations. An estimated 25 languages disappear each year.” The importance of endangered languages is often forgotten by national governments, mostly due to their economies. There are a variety of reasons to keep endangered languages alive. These ancient languages host culture and facts about civilizations that have thrived for thousands of years. Many languages are on the verge of extinction due to the lack of efforts taken to conserve and protect them.
Bolivia is home to over thirty threatened, endangered, or critically endangered languages that originated in the country. These languages range from the language Guarayo, with 8,433 speakers, to Cayuvava, with as little as four known speakers. Although Cuba strives for diversity throughout the country, with three accepted official languages, they must be unified under these more popular languages. The government is committed to teaching native languages, yet they lack the funding and resources to introduce the curriculums. Bolivia is struggling to distribute its budget to education, imports, exports, energy, and more. With most of its slim budget taken by higher priorities, there is little left over to provide schools with textbooks containing these native tongues.
Many linguists visit Central South America to preserve endangered languages as best they can. They often provide the educational materials they can. They also record the languages so that they can be accessed by future generations. Proper funding distributed to these areas of the world would provide governments with the tools needed to revive these dying languages. The revival of such languages would give Bolivia access to the culture of a multitude of ancient societies and facts held within them that could help the economy and unification of the country. With the help of the UN, languages in the past have been brought back to life, many of them are now recognized in parts of the world. Funding from the UN in Bolivia could also save many of these rare and unique languages as well.
