Brazil - Brazil to save endangered indigenous languages | Editor's Pick | 07 Nov 15

Of the around 2,000 indigenous languages thought to have been spoken in what is now Brazil during pre-Columbian times, only around 160 survive today. Experts warn that as many of 40 percent of those remaining could be lost in the next few decades, as elders die off and young people get more and more access to Brazilian television, the Internet and mobile phones. A programme spearheaded in part by the United Nations' cultural and educational agency UNESCO has aimed to give nearly three dozen threatened languages here a fighting chance. "With every language that disappears, an entire memory, an entire culture disappears," recently said Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO while in Rio de Janeiro, promoting the programme which was also operated by the Rio de Janeiro Indian Museum and the federal government's FUNAI indigenous affairs agency. Over the past nearly eight years, the programme has helped 35 tribes transcribe their languages, develop dictionaries and teaching tools for school children and document their rich oral traditions. While Brazil's indigenous population was thought to have numbered between 3 to 5 million in pre-Columbian days, five centuries of disease, violence and grinding poverty have whittled their population down to under 1 million today, meaning that Brazil's original inhabitants now make up under 0.5 percent of this country of 200 million. Their population is splintered into 305 tribes, some of which have dwindled to several dozen or even just a handful of members. The recent World Indigenous Games in the central city of Palmas brought together indigenous people from all over the world. Though some participants spoke their native languages, most were seen chatting with friends on smartphones and social media sites in Portuguese. Find out more about AP Archive: http://tinyurl.com/neh3pb4 Story number for this item is: 4011034