Global distribution and drivers of language extinction risk
Many of the world's languages face serious risk of extinction. Efforts to prevent this cultural loss are severely constrained by a poor understanding of the geographical patterns and drivers of extinction risk. We quantify the global distribution of language extinction risk-represented by small...
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ftunivqespace:oai:espace.library.uq.edu.au:UQ:f324371 2023-05-15T15:08:52+02:00 Global distribution and drivers of language extinction risk Amano, Tatsuya Sandel, Brody Eager, Heidi Bulteau, Edouard Svenning, Jens-Christian Dalsgaard, Bo Rahbek, Carsten Davies, Richard G. Sutherland, William J. 2014-10-22 https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:f324371 eng eng The Royal Society Publishing doi:10.1098/rspb.2014.1574 issn:0962-8452 issn:1471-2954 orcid:0000-0001-6576-3410 PIIF-GA-2011-303221 ERC-2012-StG-310886-HISTFUNC Endangered Languages Latitudinal Gradient Biological Diversity Competition Bilingualism Conservation Linguistics Dynamics Patterns Hotspots 1100 Agricultural and Biological Sciences 1300 Biochemistry Genetics and Molecular Biology 2300 Environmental Science 2400 Immunology and Microbiology Journal Article 2014 ftunivqespace https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.1574 2020-11-17T05:28:18Z Many of the world's languages face serious risk of extinction. Efforts to prevent this cultural loss are severely constrained by a poor understanding of the geographical patterns and drivers of extinction risk. We quantify the global distribution of language extinction risk-represented by small range and speaker population sizes and rapid declines in the number of speakers-and identify the underlying environmental and socioeconomic drivers. We show that both small range and speaker population sizes are associated with rapid declines in speaker numbers, causing 25% of existing languages to be threatened based on criteria used for species. Language range and population sizes are small in tropical and arctic regions, particularly in areas with high rainfall, high topographic heterogeneity and/or rapidly growing human populations. By contrast, recent speaker declines have mainly occurred at high latitudes and are strongly linked to high economic growth. Threatened languages are numerous in the tropics, the Himalayas and northwestern North America. These results indicate that small-population languages remaining in economically developed regions are seriously threatened by continued speaker declines. However, risks of future language losses are especially high in the tropics and in the Himalayas, as these regions harbour many small-population languages and are undergoing rapid economic growth. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic The University of Queensland: UQ eSpace Arctic Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 281 1793 20141574 |
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Open Polar |
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The University of Queensland: UQ eSpace |
op_collection_id |
ftunivqespace |
language |
English |
topic |
Endangered Languages Latitudinal Gradient Biological Diversity Competition Bilingualism Conservation Linguistics Dynamics Patterns Hotspots 1100 Agricultural and Biological Sciences 1300 Biochemistry Genetics and Molecular Biology 2300 Environmental Science 2400 Immunology and Microbiology |
spellingShingle |
Endangered Languages Latitudinal Gradient Biological Diversity Competition Bilingualism Conservation Linguistics Dynamics Patterns Hotspots 1100 Agricultural and Biological Sciences 1300 Biochemistry Genetics and Molecular Biology 2300 Environmental Science 2400 Immunology and Microbiology Amano, Tatsuya Sandel, Brody Eager, Heidi Bulteau, Edouard Svenning, Jens-Christian Dalsgaard, Bo Rahbek, Carsten Davies, Richard G. Sutherland, William J. Global distribution and drivers of language extinction risk |
topic_facet |
Endangered Languages Latitudinal Gradient Biological Diversity Competition Bilingualism Conservation Linguistics Dynamics Patterns Hotspots 1100 Agricultural and Biological Sciences 1300 Biochemistry Genetics and Molecular Biology 2300 Environmental Science 2400 Immunology and Microbiology |
description |
Many of the world's languages face serious risk of extinction. Efforts to prevent this cultural loss are severely constrained by a poor understanding of the geographical patterns and drivers of extinction risk. We quantify the global distribution of language extinction risk-represented by small range and speaker population sizes and rapid declines in the number of speakers-and identify the underlying environmental and socioeconomic drivers. We show that both small range and speaker population sizes are associated with rapid declines in speaker numbers, causing 25% of existing languages to be threatened based on criteria used for species. Language range and population sizes are small in tropical and arctic regions, particularly in areas with high rainfall, high topographic heterogeneity and/or rapidly growing human populations. By contrast, recent speaker declines have mainly occurred at high latitudes and are strongly linked to high economic growth. Threatened languages are numerous in the tropics, the Himalayas and northwestern North America. These results indicate that small-population languages remaining in economically developed regions are seriously threatened by continued speaker declines. However, risks of future language losses are especially high in the tropics and in the Himalayas, as these regions harbour many small-population languages and are undergoing rapid economic growth. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Amano, Tatsuya Sandel, Brody Eager, Heidi Bulteau, Edouard Svenning, Jens-Christian Dalsgaard, Bo Rahbek, Carsten Davies, Richard G. Sutherland, William J. |
author_facet |
Amano, Tatsuya Sandel, Brody Eager, Heidi Bulteau, Edouard Svenning, Jens-Christian Dalsgaard, Bo Rahbek, Carsten Davies, Richard G. Sutherland, William J. |
author_sort |
Amano, Tatsuya |
title |
Global distribution and drivers of language extinction risk |
title_short |
Global distribution and drivers of language extinction risk |
title_full |
Global distribution and drivers of language extinction risk |
title_fullStr |
Global distribution and drivers of language extinction risk |
title_full_unstemmed |
Global distribution and drivers of language extinction risk |
title_sort |
global distribution and drivers of language extinction risk |
publisher |
The Royal Society Publishing |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:f324371 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_relation |
doi:10.1098/rspb.2014.1574 issn:0962-8452 issn:1471-2954 orcid:0000-0001-6576-3410 PIIF-GA-2011-303221 ERC-2012-StG-310886-HISTFUNC |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.1574 |
container_title |
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
container_volume |
281 |
container_issue |
1793 |
container_start_page |
20141574 |
_version_ |
1766340151177379840 |