Why should we protect endangered languages?

Why should we protect endangered languages?

Dr Mark Turin responds with the passionate reply that language is essentially connected to culture; that it is a part of who we are.
If we are not interested in protecting and preserving this then it would be nothing less than a moral travesty, the result of which would be perhaps the greatest indictment of our age as we sit back and do nothing about the death of languages all around us.

Dr Mark Turin is here responding to a question posed at the 'Rare and Endangered Languages' symposium, chaired by Professor Tim Connell (here convening the questions following Dr Turin's lecture).
The full lecture by Dr Turin, entitled 'Collect, Protect, Connect: Documenting the Voices of Vanishing Worlds', can be downloaded from the Gresham College website, as can the rest of the conference:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/http%3A/%252Fwww.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/r...

Dr Turin is Director of both the World Oral Literature Project and the Digital Himalaya Project:
http://www.oralliterature.org/
http://www.digitalhimalaya.com/

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website.
http://www.gresham.ac.uk

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