According to Unesco, out of the estimated 6,000 languages spoken in the world – at least 43% are endangered and every two weeks, one language disappears.
This “disappearance” can be attributed to one generation failing to preserve the language for the next generation, or when its speakers prefer to converse in another language to gain economic advantage.
If nothing else, these daunting statistics reflect the importance of preserving one’s mother language. With that, FMT took a look at some of the languages that have gone extinct, survived the test of time, or even uniquely experienced a revival.
Extinct: the Kenaboi language
The Kenaboi language was used by an Orang Asli tribe by the same name who used to live in the northern parts of Negeri Sembilan.
The group eventually integrated into another Orang Asli community called the Temuan, which led to the extinction of their language and culture.
However, not all traces of this language have vanished completely from earth.
A former government official resident in Melaka named DFA Hervey, who was also an experienced word-list collector with a great accuracy in his translation, managed to collect a list of words from those who spoke the language.
In a paper titled, “Kenaboi: an extinct unclassified language of the Malay Peninsula” by John Hajek, an Australian linguist, it is mentioned that the speakers of Kenaboi must have vanished around 1880, and it is also suggested that Hervey’s word-list dates from the 1870s.
These words were subsequently included in a book titled “Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula” by Walter William Skeet and Charles Otto Blagden that was published in 1906.
Survived: the Tamil language
The Tamil language is part of the Dravidian languages, a family of languages spoken by 220 million people who are primarily based in South India, north-east Sri Lanka, and South Asia.
According to Britannica, the earliest Tamil inscriptions discovered, dates back to the fifth century BCE and it is believed that the Tamil writing system actually evolved from the Brahmi script.
As of 2021, it is estimated by Ethnoloɠue (an annual publication that has statistics on the living languages of the world) that Tamil is the first language for approximately 77.5 million people.
And what could be the reason behind its ability to survive the test of time?
Ganesh Narayan Devy, chief editor of the People’s Linguistic Survey of India (a survey launched in 2010 to collect updated information about the languages spoken in India), believes that it is due to its inner flexibility to adapt through the ages.
Revived: the Hebrew language
However, there are also unique cases of languages that have undergone a “revival” such as Hebrew.
It is believed that Hebrew ceased to be spoken as a mother tongue sometime in the second century CE and was then only primarily used in literature and prayer.
However, in the early 19th century, it began to be a mode of communication in the markets between Jewish people from different backgrounds who do not share a common language.
Subsequently, towards the end of the 19th century, a Jewish activist by the name of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda began a movement to revive Hebrew as a spoken language.
His efforts proved successful as centuries later in 2013, it was reported that the Hebrew language was spoken by more than nine million people globally.
Malaysia’s young generation speaks
Meanwhile, multiracial Malaysia is home to approximately 137 living languages. But how does the young generation view their mother languages?
Santtosh Sivaram, 17, his brother Theenesh, 15, and their cousin, Kirrtana Lew Alagappa, 13, are of Indian Chinese parentage. With the benefit of having an additional mother language as part of their mixed parentage, the trio shared their views with FMT.
“Both my brother and I studied in a Chinese primary school for six years, so I am fluent in Mandarin. At home, we speak a mixture of Mandarin and English,” shared Santtosh.
He can also partially understand Hokkien, after picking up the language from hearing his mother, who is of Hokkien descent, converse with his grandparents.
Similarly, his brother, Theenesh, also speaks Mandarin and a bit of Hokkien. “In school, I speak in English and Mandarin with my friends,” he told FMT.
In 2020, both Santtosh and Theenesh also went for Tamil language classes. “However, it turned out to be hard,” Santtosh admitted.
Similarly, their cousin Kirttana also went for Tamil classes when she was younger. Although she eventually stopped, she is currently taking Mandarin lessons.
All three agree that it is important to know their mother languages. For Santtosh, it gives him the benefit of knowing an extra language while for both Theenesh and Kirrtana, it helps them communicate with their extended family members.