Language: A Resource for Nature 153diversity in the debates surrounding international instruments concerned with
biodiversity, such as the CBD.
As this process unfolds, we are coming full circle to a holistic view of language,
culture and land that may have once characterized localized human communities
throughout the world, and that indigenous peoples today are holding up for the
rest of humanity to see.
Notes
1 On language endangerment, see especially: Krauss, M. 1992. The world’s languages in crisis.
Language 68(1): 4–10. An integrated perspective on linguistic, cultural and biological diversity
was developed in particular at the international interdisciplinary working conference ‘Endangered
Languages, Endangered Knowledge, Endangered Environments’ (Berkeley, California, 25–27
October 1996). See: (a) Maffi, L. 1997. Language, knowledge and the environment: Threats to
the world’s biocultural diversity. Anthropology Newsletter 38(2): 11; (b) Maffi, L. (ed.). forthcom-
ing. Language, Knowledge and the Environment: The Interdependence of Biological and Cultural
Diversity. Submitted to Oxford University Press.
2 This article draws in part on the author’s contribution to the chapter ‘Linguistic Diversity’,
co written with T. Skutnabb-Kangas and J. Andrianarivo, in the forthcoming volume Cultural and
Spiritual Values of Biodiversity, edited by Darrel Posey for the United Nations Environment Pro-
gramme (UNEP).
3 For the most comprehensive catalogue of the world’s languages, see: Grimes, B. (ed.). 1996. Eth-
nologue: Languages of the World. 13th edn. Summer Institute of Linguistics, Dallas. Available on
the World Wide Web @ http://www.sil.org/ethnologue/. The mentioned figures do not include
sign languages, that may be almost as numerous as oral languages. The data on classification of
languages by number of mother-tongue speakers and relative size are from: Harmon, D. 1995.
The status of the world’s languages as reported in the Ethnologue: Southwest Journal of Linguistics,
14: 1–33. Figures 5.1–5.3 are reproduced from Harmon (1995); with the author’s permission.
4 The statistics on ‘nearly extinct’ languages are from Harmon (1995), see note 3 above. The esti-
mate of the possible magnitude of impending linguistic diversity loss is from: Krauss (1992), see
note 1 above. For hypotheses on the historical peak of linguistic diversity, see: Hill, J.H. 1997.
The meaning of linguistic diversity: Knowable or unknowable? Anthropology Newsletter, 38(1):
9–10. For estimates of linguistic diversity loss since the colonial era, see: Bernard, R. 1992. Pre-
serving language diversity. Human Organization, 51(1): 82–9.
5 On the causes of language loss see: Wurm, S.A. 1991. Language death and disappearance: Causes
and circumstances. In: Robins, R.H.; Uhlenbeck, E.M. (eds), Endangered Languages, pp. 1–18.
Berg, Oxford. The Nebrija quote is reported on p. 6 of: Illich, I. 1981. Taught mother tongue and
vernacular tongue. In Pattanayak, D.P., Multilingualism and Mother-Tongue Education, pp. 1–46.
Oxford University Press. Delhi.
6 The issue of additive vs. subtractive bilingualism is treated extensively in: Skutnabb-Kangas, T.
- Bilingualism or Not: The Education of Minorities. Multilingual Matters, Clevedon, UK. On
ethnic groups, marginalization, and ethnic conflict, see: (a) Bodley, J.H. 1990. Victims of Progress.
Mayfield Publishing Co., Mountain View, CA. (b) Pattanayak, D.P. 1988. Monolingual myopia
and the petals of the Indian lotus: Do many languages divide or unite a nation? In: Skutnabb-
Kangas, T.; Cummins, J. (eds), Minority Education: from Shame to Struggle, pp. 379–89. Multilin-
gual Matters, Clevedon, UK. (c) Stavenhagen, R. 1990. The Ethnic Question: Conflicts,
Development, and Human Rights. United Nations University Press, Tokyo.