Mother Tongues: Endangered Language Series
Linguists estimate that half of the world’s seven thousand languages will disappear this century. The New York City metropolitan area is a living language lab where there are more spoken and endangered languages than anywhere
else in the world. There are an estimated 700 languages in the city. Mother Tongues is both an exploration of the richness inhabiting all languages as well as a call to action to preserve the world's linguistic diversity.
Mother Tongues multimedia by the Endangered Language Alliance
Mother Tongues multimedia by the Endangered Language AllianceAll linguistic text by Daniel Kaufman
Learn more about the Endangered Language Alliance click here
When there's no more bread, eat cake. I'm so lucky I'm an orphan.
Gertrude and Dinah, Yiddish
(Cierpz/Sheps, Poland) 1992-2016
19 19
Buried in sacred ground so far away from home. Like the famous anthem goes, “Here sleeps many brave Bretons.”
Maria-Riene, Breton
(Brittany, France) 2016
02 19
We Gullah people say "Must take care of the root to heal the tree" ...this land here is my family root. To take care of it is to take care of us. We're here!
Sunn, Gullah
(Charleston, South Carolina, USA) 2018
05 19
If scripture is lost then you lose your tradition. If tradition is lost then you lose your culture. If culture is lost then you lose your identity.
Narayan, Gurung
(Siklis, Nepal) 2016
06 19
Our people defeated the French colonisers, and chased them out of our land, and then we rested in the shadow of the doroti tree.
Daowd, Masalit
(Darfur, Sudan) 2016
08 19
A person who has suffered knows to respect and value the things that they have.
Zenaida, Me’phaa
(Malinaltepec, Guerrero, Mexico) 2016
09 19
In order to prevent your history from getting lost in the world, you must speak your native language.
Maximiliano, Mixteco
(Guerrero, Mexico) 2016
10 19
Outside, thunder and lightning, the storm forms a great river in the street. And we stay together inside, making savory cornflour cakes and a drink of hot corn porridge.
Irwin, Nahuatl
(Mexico) 2016
11 19
I'm the youngest one. I'm the pot licker.
Camilo, Piedmontese
(Italy) 1994-2022
12 19
We all stand in each other's shadows.
Meredith, Irish (Ireland) 1992
06 28
All that I have here, in my head, and here, in my chest, and here in my stomach; that is what I must say.
Osvaldo, Quechua
(Argentina) 1994
13 19
I know how to speak the indigenous Toba language.
Luisa, Toba
(Argentina) 1995
14 19
The spirit, deeply embedded in the profoundness of being, defeats the monotony of daily life, and creates the possibility of opening doors—no matter how difficult it may seem.
José, Totonac
(Tuxtla, Puebla, Mexico) 2016
15 19
No one asks anymore. No one would care to ask. The time of indifference has come.
Nazir, Wakhi
(Gulmit, Pakistan) 2016
16 19
I believe in God, in the Trinity: God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. If I have a sickness in my body, I ask for the help of God, and see that all that the Bible says, it does. I have tried it and see the results of what has happened to me.
Mariano, Wichi-Mataco
(Argentina) 1994-2021
17 19
I would like to know the meaning of the word “Free.”
Octorina, Wichi-Mataco
(Argentina) 1994-2021
18 19
Amazigh yesterday, Amazigh today, Amazigh tomorrow. Amazigh in school.
Larbi, Amazigh
(Algeria) 1996
01 19