LANGUAGES, just like animal and plant species, can be classified as "endangered".
According to US organisation Ethnologue, nearly 2,500 languages worldwide fall into this category, with a further 373 having been lost altogether since 1950.
Dialects are also in danger of falling out of use. Today, we report on an Aberdeen University study on "dialect attrition" in the north east as the fishing industry declines. It reveals a tremendous variation in dialect, with every significant fishing town on the east coast and Moray Firth having its own word for "seagull".
The report found that women seem to have a better grasp of traditional dialect than men, offering some hope for the preservation of local vocabularies for a while longer, but the team is under no illusions that these specialised vocabularies are probably on their way out.
What will remain are dialects for larger regions made distinctive by particular pronunciation rather than different words. This is a sad prospect. Of course language evolves and no-one can be made to speak a dialect, but it would be a huge loss to Scotland's heritage if these local languages were allowed to sink without trace.
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