Ideas worth spreading

How to save a language from extinction

2,276,778 views | Daniel Bögre Udell • TED Residency

As many as 3,000 languages could disappear within the next 80 years, all but silencing entire cultures. In this quick talk, language activist Daniel Bögre Udell shows how people around the world are finding new ways to revive ancestral languages and rebuild their traditions -- and encourages us all to investigate the tongues of our ancestors. "Reclaiming your language and embracing your culture is a powerful way to be yourself," he says.

As many as 3,000 languages could disappear within the next 80 years, all but silencing entire cultures. In this quick talk, language activist Daniel Bögre Udell shows how people around the world are finding new ways to revive ancestral languages and rebuild their traditions -- and encourages us all to investigate the tongues of our ancestors. "Reclaiming your language and embracing your culture is a powerful way to be yourself," he says.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Contribute a video of your language to the Wikitongues seed bank.

Donate to Wikitongues and help safeguard linguistic diversity.

About the speaker

Daniel Bögre Udell

Daniel Bögre Udell

Language activist

See speaker profile

Daniel Bögre Udell is the cofounder and director of Wikitongues, working with a global network of grassroots linguists to build a seed bank of every language in the world.

Mark Turin, et al. | Intellect Journals, 2011 | Book

Book 2.0

The ninth volume of Book 2.0, edited by Mark Turin and Mick Gowar, is an excellent compilation of essays about how language diversity and culture manifest in contemporary media. Daniel Bögre Udell and his colleague from Wikitongues Kristen Tcherneshoff coauthored a chapter about the internet's role in helping people keep their languages alive.

James Griffiths | CNN Business, 2019 | Article

"The internet threatened to speed up the death of endangered languages. Could it save them instead?"

This recent article in CNN, which highlights the work of Wikitongues, is a great point of entry into the conversation about the internet's potential to sustain linguistic diversity, contrary to the common assumption that it has been a homogenizing force.

Anna Luisa Daigneault | Global Voices, 2019 | Book

"Museums of the mind: Why we should preserve endangered languages"

If you’re still wondering, “Ok, but why does language diversity really matter?” — this essay by Anna Luisa Daigneault of the Living Tongues Institute is a great place to start. Every language is the collective memory of a culture: its history and knowledge of the natural world. As Daigneault puts it, languages are a living manifestation of humanity’s long history on this planet.

Nina Strochlic | National Geographic, 2018 | Article

"The Race to Save the World's Disappearing Languages"

If you’re curious about the Wikitongues effort to build a seed bank of every language in the world, this article by National Geographic is a great place to start.

Aleksey Tsykarev | Medium, 2019 | Article

"The international movement for recognition and preservation of Indigenous languages"

To learn more about the struggle for legal recognition of linguistic diversity, this essay by Aleksey Tsykarev, member of the Karelian language community and a former Representative to the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, is a great place to start.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Contribute a video of your language to the Wikitongues seed bank.

Donate to Wikitongues and help safeguard linguistic diversity.