8 Mar 2022

How globalisation is causing languages to die out

From Afternoons, 3:10 pm on 8 March 2022

Language is considered humankind's greatest achievement.

But all over the world many indigenous languages are racing towards extinction not because they are simply dying out, but because they are being undermined by the powerful at the expense of the powerless says journalist James Griffiths.

He looks at the ways globalization and colonialism rob us of our linguistic heritage in his new book called Speak Not: Empire, Identity and the Politics of Language.

James Griffiths, journalist and author of Speak Not: Empire, identity and the politics of language

James Griffiths, journalist and author of Speak Not: Empire, identity and the politics of language Photo: supplied