News Headline
How linguistic diversity affects our environment
Source
South China Morning Post
Publication Date
2017-05-01
The correlation between biodiversity and cultural and linguistic diversity has been much highlighted. Research has revealed that earth’s 36 biodiversity hotspots (threatened biologically rich locations, including the Horn of Africa, Mesoamerica, Indo-Burma) and five high-biodiversity wilderness areas (rich in biodiversity but not yet threatened, including the Amazon Basin) have a higher concentration of languages than would be expected by pure chance. When traditional habitats and ecological niches come under threat, the languages and cultures of indigenous peoples who inhabit them often also become endangered.