Let's talk

Languages are becoming extinct much faster than species. The digital divide can make it worse

Resurrecting Babel

A member of a non-profit committed to documenting all of the world’s 7,000 languages, explains why her organisation is on such a mission

International Mother Language Day 2023: Adivasi children in India unable to study in their own tongues needs redressal

Tribal children do not have teachers, reading material or even a proper script for their dialects or languages  

ChatGPT threatens language diversity. More needs to be done to protect our differences in the age of AI

When writing tools prioritise one way of writing over another, they reinforce existing hierarchies that unfairly position Standard American …

Seven decades after independence, many tribal languages in India face extinction threat

To lose these indigenous languages means losing huge human capital and rich cultural diversity 

Linguists found the weirdest languages – and English is one of them

Some computational linguists have, however, used data in the World Atlas of Language Structures to explore which languages might be considered …

Africa: Why Uganda’s English language policy is failing rural children

Learners faced various challenges in learning and acquiring English

People on Vanuatu’s Malekula Island speak more than 30 indigenous languages. Here’s why we must record them

Vanuatu has been described as the world’s “densest linguistic landscape”, with as many as 145 languages spoken by a population …

Why we studied proverbs to understand emotion among Ghana's Akan people

They contain valuable cultural information that symbolises a specific society’s uniqueness

World Kiswahili Language Day: How a standard version of the east African language formed and spread across the world

Kiswahili has been adopted as a working language at the African Union

Book Excerpt: Swahili in German East Africa

Morgan J Robinson's 2022 book explores how Swahili was standardised and eventually became a pan-African language

Insights from Fulani pastoralists and host communities in southwestern Nigeria

Their migrant status and strained relationships with host communities have led to disadvantaged access to infrastructural facilities

World Biodiversity Day: Why language should not be forgotten

Languages are a treasure trove of knowledge about a region’s flora, fauna and medicinal plants, say experts

Say it in Kazakh

Language>> government Employees • Kazakhstan

Linguistic nationalism

Language>> Politics • Kyrgyzstan

Vhat say

Two grumpy men

'Sustainable' most used word, says language monitor

Mother tongues

Word wars: Language copyright

It's becoming harder to exercise one's freedom of expression, even in the land of liberty. When at & t used the phrase "freedom of expression" in …

Mother tongue love

Protest>> Language • Belarus

Bo out

Language>> BO • Andaman Islands

The popular Hindi press

US's National Association for Colored people to bury 'Negro'

Shockwave over Iran

Over the years, overseas-based Persian language satellite tv broadcasters have won over the hearts of a number of Iranians. And to make matters …