Idiomas en vías de extinción
Disappearing languages
The United Nations cultural agency, UNESCO, says more than a third of the world's six thousand languages are in danger of extinction. Of those two thousand, it says, about two hundred are spoken by only a handful of people.
Reporter: Leonardo Rocha
When a language dies, UNESCO says the world loses valuable cultural heritage - a great deal of the legends, poems and the knowledge gathered by generations is simply lost. In 2008, Alaska's last native speaker of Eyak died, taking the language with her.
Marie Smith Jones praying in Eyak
Chief Marie Smith Jones, praying here for the survival of the Eyaks. She died at the age of eighty-nine, campaigning to save her people's heritage.
UNESCO says government action is needed if the world is to preserve its linguistic diversity. People must be proud to speak their language to ensure it survives.
In the last five years, the governments of Mexico, New Zealand and the United States managed to reverse the trend locally. But UNESCO says the phenomenon of dying languages appears in every region and in very diverse economic conditions. Leonardo Rocha, BBC
UNESCO las siglas en inglés para la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Educación, la Ciencia y la Cultura
valuable cultural heritage valioso patrimonio cultural
a great deal of una gran cantidad
legends leyendas
native speaker of una hablante nativa de
campaigning haciendo campaña
to preserve its linguistic diversity conservar su diversidad lingüistica
to reverse the trend revertir la tendencia, en este caso, alentar a la gente a hablar sus idiomas nativos