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本文自联合国教科文组织网站http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?pg=00136 Half of the 6,700 languages spoken today are in danger of disappearing before the century ends, a process that can be slowed only if urgent action is taken by governments and speaker communities. UNESCO’s Endangered Languages Programme mobilizes international cooperation to focus attention on this grave situation and to promote innovative solutions from communities, experts and authorities. Languages are humankind’s principle tools for interacting and for expressing ideas, emotions, knowledge, memories and values. Languages are also primary vehicles of cultural expressions and intangible cultural heritage, essential to the identity of individuals and groups. Safeguarding endangered languages is thus a crucial task in maintaining cultural diversity worldwide. UNESCO’s flagship activity in safeguarding endangered languages is the Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, with an interactive online resource now complementing its third print edition (in press). The online Atlas, freely available, aims to provide speaker communities, policy-makers and the general public with state-of-the-art knowledge, continually updated by a growing network of experts and community members. UNESCO has collected some recent examples of effective language safeguarding projects in its Register of Good Practices in Language Preservation, and there are countless more examples published elsewhere. The first step in any safeguarding effort must be an assessment of the vitality of the language(s) to be followed by well-planned targeted measures. UNESCO is also exploring possible relations between linguistic diversity worldwide and biological diversity on planet Earth. Language in the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural HeritageThe 2003 Convention recognizes the vital role of language in the expression and transmission of living heritage. All intangible cultural heritage domains – from knowledge about the universe to rituals, performing arts to handicrafts – depend on language for their day-to-day practice and inter-generational transmission. In the domain of oral traditions and expressions, language is not only a vehicle of intangible heritage, it is their very essence. 联合国教科文组织把语言类项目作为保护的首项 只可惜中国政府在自己制定的遗产项目中去掉了这一类，不知道为什么 |
发表于 2009-10-9 21:36:00
发表于 2009-10-9 22:08:00