Languages Falling in Number With Deforestation

Human societies change as the climate changes. Man is a clever animal. He uses his mind to overcome obstacles in nature. When we came down from the trees the first changes were made. This sped up our evolution to become more intelligent.

With evolutionary advancement certain things are lost. Tree clearing has led to an unforeseen event: languages are disappearing. Some, usually forest living, people speak more than a dozen languages. However, their tribes are decreasing in number as more contact with advanced societies and destruction of the environment they live in continues.

Papua New Guinea still has about 1,000 languages. Isolation is diminishing so more dialects are lost as times goes on. It has been said that as biodiversity falls so languages decrease in number. However, less biodiversity is an effect of less forestation rather than a causal factor.

Forest living people are moving to cities to find work as their livelihood disappears. Furthermore, governments find it easier to ignore minor languages and concentrate on teaching the one most used. Therefore, language are being lost at a much faster rate than wildlife and forests.
Anthropology by Ty Buchanan
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