UNESCO: World's languages are estimated at 7,000

CAIRO – 13 November 2022: The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization [UNESCO] renewed its warnings about the extinction of indigenous languages, noting that the number of languages in the world is estimated at 7000, most of which are indigenous languages.

“As soon as these languages disappear, so does the culture, knowledge, values and identity that they carry with them. Therefore, we must support the use of indigenous languages to be passed on to future generations, ” UNESCO said, in a tweet via its official account on Twitter.

UNESCO noted that languages play an important role in the daily lives of all people. It is through language that we communicate with the world, define who we are, express our history and culture, learn, defend our human rights and participate in all aspects of society. Through language, people preserve their societies' history, customs, traditions, memory, unique patterns of thought, meaning and expression.They also use it to build their future.

UNESCO said that language is central to the protection of human rights, good governance, peacebuilding, reconciliation and sustainable development, and that is why we must promote indigenous languages through increased understanding, reconciliation and international cooperation, in addition to creating favorable conditions for the sharing of knowledge and the dissemination of good practices in relation to indigenous languages, incorporating indigenous languages into standard setting, empowerment through capacity building and growth and development by developing new knowledge.