Understanding language and diversity can help bring about a new set of life-affirming values and promote a paradigm shift in how we think and act.

Linguist Anvita Abbi records Andamanese Elder Boa Sr speaking in her ancestral language. These recordings preserve the rich biocultural connections in Indigenous languages and facilitate their transmission to younger generations. Photo: VOGA/Anvita Abbi

What Is Linguistic Diversity?

Linguistic diversity is the number of distinct languages — or the diversity of languages — spoken within a given area and overall around the world. Globally, nearly 7,000 different languages are spoken today.

However, studies show that linguistic diversity is declining. Between 1970 and 2005, linguistic diversity on earth declined by 20% (Harmon & Loh, 2010). In fact, linguists  believe that languages are facing an extinction crisis.

What’s going on?

Importantly, the distribution of languages among the world’s population is uneven:

• Over half of the global population speaks one or other of only 25 languages.
• Each of these “big” languages has millions of speakers (and in some cases over a billion).
• Of these 25 languages, 16 have increased their share of the world’s population from 45 to 55%.

Check out the National Geographic Society’s Map of Language Diversity.

On the other hand, the remainder of humanity — nearly half of the world’s population — is divided up between the remaining 6,975 languages:

• Most of these are spoken by smaller (and sometimes very small) groups of people, mainly Indigenous Peoples and local communities.
• In other words, the bulk of our global linguistic diversity is represented by the various Indigenous and local languages spoken by a very large number of smaller human communities and cultures.

Credit: David Harmon and Jonathan Loh / Terralingua

How Is Linguistic Diversity Connected to Traditional Knowledge?

Imagine a vessel that stores and transmits knowledge from one generation to another — that’s language. Part of the knowledge that is handed down through language is traditional environmental knowledge.

Why do we call this knowledge “traditional”?

The knowledge developed over many generations to adapt and survive in a specific environment is known as TEK.

Visualize this: people and cultures adapt to and evolve with the environment around them. The knowledge they develop over many generations to survive in a specific environment is known as traditional environmental knowledge. It is also called traditional ecological knowledge, or simply TEK. And language allows people to talk about TEK and pass it on from one generation to the next.

Yet, more and more of the 6,975 languages in use in the “other” half of the world’s population are not being transmitted to the younger generations. This is happening for two main reasons:

• Colonialism was a swift and disruptive force against the intergenerational transmission of languages.
• In many parts of the world, the break-neck pace of socio-economic change and many other factors continue to undermine the transmission of language and TEK across generations.  

When the transmission of language from one generation to another breaks down, languages become at risk of extinction. Simultaneously, TEK also becomes at risk. In turn, the loss of language and TEK threatens the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystems in many parts of the world.

How does that happen?

That’s because, as languages and TEK begin to wane, people begin to lose their ancestral understanding of how to care for their environment in a sustainable, life-enhancing way.

As a result, the loss of language and TEK has a direct impact on the security, well-being, and identity of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. Therefore, to safeguard the natural world, it is crucial to safeguard languages and TEK.

How Is Linguistic Diversity Connected to Nature?

Indigenous Peoples and local communities have always been the main stewards of the natural world. Wherever they have held on to their ancestral languages and cultural traditions and retained control over their lands, they have tended to be skilled and respectful protectors of the ecosystems upon which they depend. 

Now consider what we said above about the distribution of linguistic diversity. Nearly half of the world’s population speaks 6,975 languages. Recall, too, that those speakers are mainly Indigenous Peoples and local communities. This means that the bulk of our global linguistic and cultural diversity is made up of the Indigenous and local languages spoken by many smaller human communities and cultures. 

With that in mind, take a look at the map below. It shows the geographical distribution of the world’s biodiversity and overlaps it with the distribution of the world’s languages (and cultures). For the very first time, this and other maps produced by Terralingua showed the strong links between these two “diversities.”

Areas of high biodiversity also abound in linguistic diversity.

What do these links imply?

Clearly, areas of high biodiversity also abound in linguistic diversity (a high concentration of many different languages). Likewise, fewer, more broadly distributed languages tend to be spoken in areas of lower biodiversity. In addition, wherever we see a loss of global linguistic diversity, this is mirrored in the loss of global biodiversity over the same period. (We’ll unpack this more in the section on measuring linguistic diversity.)

Map showing the geographic distribution of the world’s biodiversity overlapped with the distribution of the world’s languages (and cultures). Credit: WWF International, Terralingua, and UNEP, 2000

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So, how to interpret these patterns?

What we see is the reflection, at the global level, of the local interconnection of language, knowledge, and the environment. In other words, we see the combined result of the ways in which, all around the world, human communities, their languages, and their cultures have adapted to their ecological niches.

What Do You Call Linguistic Diversity Together with Cultural Diversity and Biodiversity?

Take a moment to visualize this: diversity is Earth’s most natural state – the fruit of the evolution of life on this planet. In nature, we call that biodiversity. Humans and their cultures are also abundant and diverse; we call that cultural diversity. And from cultural diversity emerges linguistic diversity, meaning the diversity of languages.

Together, linguistic diversity, cultural diversity, and biodiversity are an interrelated and interdependent whole that we call biocultural diversity. Importantly, we believe that these diversities are also inextricably linked. Locally, you can’t think of people as separate from nature. Globally, you can’t think of the biosphere as separate from the total network of human languages and cultures. As we see it, this is our fundamental unity in biocultural diversity.

You can’t think of people as separate from nature.

To sum up the bigger picture: we believe that linguistic diversity is not separate from, but a part of, a greater whole — biocultural diversity.

In the next section, you will discover how we have been able to measure linguistic diversity.  

How Do We Know the Extent of the Loss of Linguistic Diversity?

Until recently, we didn’t have any systematic information about the extent of the loss of language diversity. Researchers relied on educated guesses based on scattered reports about this or that language on the brink as its last speakers pass away, or about this or that Indigenous culture under threat of assimilation. 

Then, for the first time, Terralingua researchers were able to provide quantitative evidence of what was happening. As seen in the graph below, our Index of Linguistic Diversity shows that since 1970 there has been a 20% decline in global linguistic diversity. We measured this decline through changes in the numbers of native speakers of each of the world’s languages. That is to say, more and more people are switching from the “small” languages to the “dominant” ones.

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Credit: David Harmon and Jonathan Loh/Terralingua

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What’s more, the Index of Linguistic Diversity reveals a striking parallel, illustrated in the next graph. The trend in the loss of global linguistic diversity closely mirrors the trend in the loss of global biodiversity for the same period, as measured by the World Wildlife Fund’s Living Planet Index. This lends support to the idea that what happens with diversity in nature goes hand in hand with what happens with diversity in culture.

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Source: Living Planet Index, WWF

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How Does the Index of Linguistic Diversity Measure Trends in the Diversity of the World’s Languages?

The Index of Linguistic Diversity is the first-ever quantitative measure of trends in global linguistic diversity. “Quantitative” means based on a rigorous statistical methodology.

What makes this methodology unique? Our Index tracks trends in linguistic diversity in two steps.

First, it records changes over time in the numbers of mother-tongue speakers of a statistically significant (representative) sample of the world’s languages.

Second, it computes changes in the share of the world’s population represented by the total number of speakers of each language.

Consequently, the Index of Linguistic Diversity has become a tool for social change. It provides solid data which researchers, policymakers, and language communities can use in the real world. For example, they can use this data to better plan interventions and mobilize resources to maintain and revitalize Indigenous languages and the traditional knowledge they embody.

The Index of Linguistic Diversity has become a tool for social change.

Now, have a look at Volume 2 in the Biocultural Diversity Toolkit, “Assessing the State of the World’s Languages.” Meant as a practical introduction to the Index of Linguistic Diversity, Volume 2 provides:

• a case study that illustrates the links between language and traditional knowledge and the implications for biodiversity conservation; and
• an introduction to the Index of Linguistic Diversity (ILD) through highlights of an interview with its developers and the peer-reviewed publication in which they presented the ILD.

What Is Happening With Linguistic Diversity – and Biocultural Diversity – in the Context of Massive Global Change?

People sometimes ask: Don’t languages and cultures (and the natural world) change all the time anyway?

Sure, they do. Life is never static! In other words, biological species, human languages, and cultures naturally change and evolve. Thus, all human cultures are capable of adapting to new circumstances and creating solutions to new problems. Likewise, all human languages are capable of change to accommodate new communication needs. 

But here’s the big difference: As with biological species, human languages and cultures need time to change and evolve by themselves. Historically, that has been a slow process, with change happening in small increments, from one generation to the next. Gradually, people found new ways of responding to new challenges and opportunities and new ways of talking about new things.

The exponential growth of the pace and scale of global change

More and more, however, change is no longer happening at a naturally slow pace. We can all see that the pace and scale of change have grown exponentially. The pressures of global economic, political, and social forces have greatly intensified, making it harder for local communities to respond to change at their own pace and in their own ways. Directly or indirectly, these pressures push the speakers of “smaller” languages to shift to dominant languages and to assimilate to dominant cultures. The same forces also put increasing pressure on the natural world.

As with biological species, human languages and cultures need time to change and evolve by themselves.

Overall, these pressures are overwhelming the capacity of natural and cultural systems to respond and adapt and are eroding the vitality and resilience of the world’s diverse ecosystems, languages, and cultures.

In particular, these global forces and the sweeping changes they are bringing about affect Indigenous Peoples and local communities in multiple ways. They dispossess them of their lands and resources, often forcing them to subsist in highly degraded environments.

They also trample their languages, cultural traditions, and ways of life, or hamper their ability to maintain them.

It’s a vicious circle: losing one’s lands leads to the loss of one’s linguistic and cultural identity. In turn, losing one’s linguistic and cultural identity often goes hand in hand with losing traditional ways of life that teach an understanding of and respect for nature.

As you can imagine, the consequences are profound for both the well-being of people and the health of the natural environment. What’s more, the forced cultural and linguistic assimilation of Indigenous Peoples and local communities not only violates their human rights but also undermines conservation of the natural world.

Indeed, creating “monocultures of the mind” has the same effect as creating monocultures in farming. That is, monocultures make our planet more fragile and vulnerable to both natural disasters and human-made crises. Alarmingly, today’s dominant worldview ignores this warning. Instead of recognizing and fostering natural and cultural diversity, it seeks and promotes uniformity, which is easy to control.

Linguistic Diversity, Cultural Diversity, Biodiversity: Why Do They Matter?  

Endangered languages. Vanishing cultures. Loss of traditional knowledge. Linguists and anthropologists have long warned that these processes are part of an alarming trend that parallels the ongoing decline in the world’s biodiversity.

But there’s more. Dave Harmon, Terralingua’s co-founder, has actually suggested that we’re witnessing a “converging extinction crisis” of diversity in all its forms. As early as 1995, the pioneers of the concept of biocultural diversity agreed that diversity in all its forms is at risk, mostly because of human action.  

Losing biocultural diversity would mean weakening the whole fabric of life.

They knew that losing biocultural diversity would have profound consequences for humanity and all life on earth. Indeed, it would mean weakening the whole fabric of life.

Sound a bit dramatic? To understand how serious this is, let’s break it down. Losing biocultural diversity matters for these reasons:

• Firstly, we are losing the unique ways of life, languages, and identities of the world’s diverse peoples. It’s a matter of human rights. 
• Secondly, the loss of cultural and linguistic diversity affects humanity at large. It’s a loss of our collective human heritage. 
• Thirdly, we are losing both the rich biodiversity that supports humans and all other species and the wealth of traditional knowledge that helps sustain biodiversity. It’s an issue of survival.
• Finally, we have become deeply disconnected from and out of balance with the natural world. We can’t care for what we don’t know or don’t feel intimately linked to.

Can We Protect and Sustain the Connections Between Linguistic, Cultural, and Natural Diversity?

The short answer is “Yes”!

Once we recognize the inextricable link between linguistic diversity, cultural diversity, and biodiversity, we’ve already taken a huge step forward.

The next step is to understand that we humans are a part of — not separate from and dominant over — nature and that our relationship to nature must heal.

Finally, how do we create a world where all life, cultures and languages thrive in both unity and diversity?

As a first step. we can become better informed about the meaning and value of diversity in all its forms: linguistic diversity, cultural diversity, and biodiversity.

Start by exploring our Biocultural Diversity Toolkit series, which is free, packed with information, and inspiring. Be the defender of the linguistic diversity you want to see in the world!

Download our free Biocultural Diversity Toolkit series.

Nourished by life-affirming values, we will be able to bring about a paradigm shift in the way we think.

Enriched by deeper knowledge and understanding, we can then embrace a whole new set of values. In fact, these are our ancestral values. These values are a reverence for nature and respect for and reciprocity with one another and with all life, or “all our relations,” as Indigenous Peoples say.

Nourished by such life-affirming values, we will then be able to bring about a paradigm shift in the way we collectively think and act. This shift will allow us to recognize the “inextricable link” between people and nature, our shared humanity in all its diversity, and the fundamental value of biocultural diversity for the thriving of all life on earth.