Buenos dias, Bonjour Buongiorno, Good morning.

                        Buenos dias, Bonjour, Buongiorno, Good morning.

There was a most interesting an enlightening discussion on Al Jazeera this week. It was about languages. Did you know that there are more than 6,000 languages in the world today? Yes there are. More than half of the languages, however, do not have a written form, they are oral. Also many languages are on the verge of becoming extinct.

I learned from the discussion that 178 countries have an "official language," that is the language used by the government of the country.

Participants in the lively discussion said that as languages disappear, they take with them certain aspects of the indigenous culture.  92 year-old Cristina Calderon, who was born in Puerto Williams, Chile is the last living full-blooded Yaghan person - the last speaker of the ancient Yamana language.

Most of the world's languages are oral. In Nigeria, for example, "there is immense language diversity with more than 500 dialects." One participant said in parts of Nigeria, children are not allowed to speak English in the home, in order to preserve the dialect.

                                    ===000===

There is an article "Talk Jamaican" by Tony Hendricks in "The Best of Skywritings". He writes "I think I must have been about seven years old when I reaized that I am bilingual. Although not officially so, to all intents and purposes, I am. I speak English and Jamaican. 

Jamaica's most popular folklorist is the late Louise Bennett-Coverley.  Her collection of dialect poetry has captured the essence of the Jamaican spirit and culture.

                                    ===000===

But back to the program on Al Jazeera. Many interesting points were raised and discussed. A Maori teacher bemoaned the fact that the one common dominant language overlooks the local languages. 

One point was made that we should establish a language for children when they are young. Generation transmission is the way that languages survive, a participant said.

"Let children feel proud of their indigenous language," another participant commented. 

Yet another person said: "We need language diversity for a healthy environment." 

And, to keep an indigenous language alive everyone (in that country) should speak ten phrases of the language (at home) everyday.

                                        ===000===

There are six official languages of the United Nations. They are:Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

                                        ===000===