Abstract

Over the last two decades, scientists have come up with mathematical models for predicting the life of languages. These predictions have invariably indicated that the human species is moving rapidly close to extinction of a large part of its linguistic heritage. These predictions do not agree on the exact magnitude of the impending disaster; but they all agree on the fact that close to three quarters or over of all existing natural human languages are half in grave. There are, on the other hand, advocates of linguistic globalization. They would prefer the spread of one or only a few languages all over the world so that communication across national boundaries becomes the easiest ever. Obviously, the nations and communities that have learnt to live within only a single language, whose economic well-being is not dependent on knowing languages other than their own, whose knowledge systems are well-secure within their own languages, will not experience the stress of language loss, at least not immediately, though the loss of the world’s total language heritage, which will weaken the global stock of human intellect and civilizations, will have numerous indirect enfeebling effects for them too. Since it is language mainly, of all things, that makes us human and distinguishes us from other species and animate Nature, and since the human consciousness can but function given the ability for linguistic expression, it becomes necessary to recognize language as the most crucial aspect of the cultural capital. It has taken us continuous work of about half a million years to accumulate this valuable capital. In our time we have come close to the point of losing most of it. Some of the predictions maintain that out of approximately 6000 existing languages, not more than 300 will survive in the 22nd century. In absence of thorough surveys of languages, it is difficult to decide as to how many languages there really are in existence; and it is even more difficult to predict how many of these, and precisely which ones, will survive. History of every language has strange and some time 

completely unpredictable turns. The recent upward trend of some of the tribal languages in India such as Bhilli can be an example. It defies all established Sociolinguistic assumptions.