Film "Language Matters" Signed by Bob Holman

There are over 6,000 languages remaining in the world. We lose one every two weeks. Hundreds will be lost within the next generation. By the end of this century, half the world’s languages will have vanished. The die-off parallels the extinction of plant and animal species. The death of a language robs humanity of ideas, belief systems, and knowledge of the natural world.

Language Matters, a two-hour documentary that asks: What do we lose when a language dies? What does it take to save a language?

Language Matters was filmed around the world: on a remote island off the coast of Australia where 400 Aboriginal people speak 10 different languages, all at risk; in Wales, where Welsh, once in danger, is today making a comeback; and in Hawaii, where Hawaiians are fighting to save their native tongue. “Most people know that we are losing species,” says Bob Holman, a poet widely known for his expertise in oral traditions. “Ask schoolchildren, and they'll know about the panda or the orchid—they'll have done a project on it. But ask someone if they know that languages all over the world are dying, maybe one in ten might.”

http://www/languagemattersfilm.com

• Name : Bob Holman