Voice 1
Welcome to Spotlight. I'm Robin Basselin.
Voice 2
And I'm Joshua Leo. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
Voice 1
Today's Spotlight is on "recovering languages".
Voice 2
In a previous program, we talked about the problem of disappearing languages. There are more than six thousand languages spoken in the world today. But an estimated two to three thousand of them may disappear in the next ten or twenty years.
Voice 1
Languages disappear for many reasons. Sometimes a culture disappears, and the language disappears with it. Sometimes a government uses the law to stop people from speaking a language. And sometimes, another language overpowers a local language by offering a way to communicate with the wider world. This is not always a bad thing. It is good for people to be able to communicate with each other, across cultures. After all, this is one of Spotlight's aims!
Voice 2
But when a language is lost, a community loses an important part of culture. This is why some communities are working to protect and even bring back their language.
Voice 1
This was the case with the Māori language of native New Zealanders. Māori people arrived in New Zealand around seven hundred years ago. They were the first people to settle there. The people originally came from the Polynesian islands, and the Māori language is similar to other Polynesian languages.
Voice 2
English settlers arrived in New Zealand over one hundred and fifty years ago. They made agreements with Māori chiefs. These agreements made New Zealand a British colony. For many years the British government controlled the country. However, today, New Zealand is no longer British.
Voice 1
All through the nineteenth century, more and more Europeans arrived. The Māori people became a minority in their own country. In time, their language began to decline - fewer people used it. There were many reasons for this. People needed to speak English to take part in business and government - so Māori people learned and used English. But the government also banned the use of the Māori language in schools. Their reasons may have been well-meaning. They saw this as helping Māoris to progress. In other countries and at other times governments have banned local languages as a way of controlling people. In any case, the result is the same. When the government bans a language, that language often begins to disappear. If children do not use a language, it cannot survive. By the nineteen eighties, only twenty percent of the Māori people spoke the Māori language. Māori leaders were concerned that the language would disappear completely.
Voice 2
So the Māori leaders took action. The government of New Zealand had already stopped the ban on speaking Māori in school. So the Māori leaders decided to start there. They began programs to teach young children in Māori. Now, there are schools that only use Māori. Many children learn the language, and traditional Māori customs. When children learn a language, the language survives with them.
Voice 1
Today, along with English, Māori is an official language of New Zealand. There are official policies to protect the language. Someone is present to translate in government meetings. And there is a television station that broadcasts in Māori. The number of Māori speakers is no longer reducing. In fact, it has now increased to 23 percent.
Voice 2
There are many organizations working to save languages. Some organizations work with just one ethnic group such as the Māori. Others, like UNESCO, work on a global level with governments. One interesting organization working in this area is SIL.
Voice 1
SIL believes that language and culture are part of God's creation. SIL is a Christian group. But it does not just work with other Christians. SIL workers believe that by helping people to protect their own language and culture, they are protecting God's wonderful creation.
Voice 2
SIL supports the work of native groups in saving their own languages. For example, it trains and encourages local leaders and researchers. It helps them to develop education plans for children and adults, including teaching people to read and write in their own languages.
Voice 1
This is what is happening in the country of Papua New Guinea. Papua New Guinea has more than eight hundred languages. According to SIL, it has more languages than any other country in the world. SIL has been involved in protecting several of these languages. Many of their researchers have studied language groups in Papua New Guinea. They have also worked with local people to develop education plans.
Voice 2
One example is the Abau language. In Abau, SIL's work is centred on mother-tongue literacy. This means that people are learning to read and write in Abau because it is their first language. This process starts with young children in the first three years of school.
Voice 1
But these programs are not just for children. The Abau Training Center opened in 1994. It trains people with job skills - like using a computer, or taking care of the money at a business. All of these classes also teach reading and writing in the Abau language.
Voice 2
SIL started these projects with the support of the Abau community. Through the Abau Training Center, SIL has trained more than one hundred teachers, working in more than twenty-five schools. SIL's work is important. But the support of the Abau community makes this work possible. This is the way that the language will survive.
Voice 1
Another part of SIL's work is creating a complete list of all of the world's languages. This list is called "Ethnologue". SIL publishes the list as a large book, but you can also find it on the Internet. Ethnologue includes details like how many people speak a language, and in what countries they live. SIL researchers supply the information for the Ethnologue.
Voice 2
The Ethnologue supplies valuable information about languages. But it also helps people to see the amazing number of different languages in the world. And hopefully, that will help all of us look for ways to support these languages. Ethnologue editor Paul Lewis talked about his work with the BBC. He said,
Voice 3
"You have the smallest, weakest, least resourced communities trying to deal with the problem. And the larger communities do not know about it. We would spend a lot of money to save an old building. This is because it is part of our history. These languages and cultures are equally part of our history. They also deserve saving."
Voice 1
The writer of today's programme was Christy VanArragon. The producer was Joshua Leo. The voices you heard were from the United States. All quotes were adapted for this program and voiced by Spotlight. This program is called 'Recovering Languages'.
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