You say potato - I say prátaí

The story goes that, some 200 years ago, the German explorer Alexander von Humboldt stumbled upon the village of Maypures, near the Orinoco river, in what's now Venezuela. While there he heard a parrot speaking and asked the villagers what it was saying, but no one knew since the parrot spoke Atures and was its last native speaker.

I'm normally a pretty level-headed person, but something inside me panics a little when I think about language death. I studied linguistics as part of my first degree and it's the class on linguicide that has always stayed with me. According to estimates, a language dies every fortnight - a shocking statistic, but usually a quiet and peaceful passing. A tribal elder, the last among her community to speak the native dialect, pass away in her sleep, and the language is lost forever.

It's amazing to think that the world has about 195 countries (depending who you ask) and around 7,000 languages. It seems like we have plenty to spare then, but they say that over 500 are now endangered and, according to a prominent U.S linguist, 90% of the world's languages will have ceased to exist by the year 2100. Some will die quick deaths, because of war, famine or marriage and displacement. But many will go gradually, as the communities who use them discard their native tongues for the functionality of a more recognised vocabulary.

Some more statistics to consider: 6% of the world's languages are spoken by 94% of the world's population - so the remaining 94% are spoken by only 6% of people. 133 languages are spoken by fewer than 10 people, and many predict that, although Mandarin and Spanish are more widely spoken, if things continue as they are English will eventually kill off most other languages. Which begs the question - what else is lost when a language dies?

Most people agree that a language is more than just a collection of words. The word 'language' is often linked with notions of identity, culture, nationality, history, tradition, and character. Language, at its most basic, is a tool for communication, but at its most abstract, it can be a means of powerful poetic expression.

Or is this romanticising the issue? As an Irish person (with reasonable Irish, or 'Gaelic' language skills) I tend to bristle when others insist that when a language becomes extinct, so does a culture. I think I'd have to disagree here. I'm glad I speak Irish, even if it will never be with the fluency I have in English, but I don't think that I'd feel any 'less Irish' without it - and I know plenty of people without the native language who are very much 'Irish', and perfectly embody the beautiful spirit and character of our little island.

There are so many things which make up a cultural identity - the music, the dancing, the food, the stories, the sports, the geography, the weather, the sense of humour, the holidays and festivals, and the unique way a family interacts together; I reject the notion that losing one of these elements obliterates the rest.

And if a culture is strong, then it doesn't depend on language to prevail. The English occupied Ireland for hundreds of years, and the Irish were forced to adopt the vernacular of our colonisers, and yet we have developed a wonderful way of bending the Anglophone system to suit us. How many English speakers unfamiliar with the Emerald Isle could translate "Jaysus, y'eejit, what are you stickin the rashers down that fecker's jumper for? Youse are havin' me on aren't ye?!"

I'm often torn when it comes to my second language, which I started learning at 5 years old. While, as I said, I'm glad to have it, in reality it's pretty useless, both for travelling the world and, sadly, at home. Having put so much effort into learning other languages at a later age, I often feel that I could have benefited more, and saved myself years of frustration, had I learned some other, more widely spoken language as a child. It would be sad, obviously to lose our native tongue, but could there not be a middle ground? There is a definite limbo between lost and living languages. Latin, for example, is no longer a spoken language, yet it is far from lost. Maybe we should accept the inevitable demise of certain languages, let them die natural deaths, and choose instead to preserve their memory in songs and nameplaces and literature?

I think that all languages have a scholarly value. But I'm not convinced that all languages deserve to have an extended lifespan forced upon them (often backed by expensive government spending and self-interested academic pressure). I don't feel that language is an intrinsic part of my identity - I don't act any differently when I speak French, or Spanish, and I'm still myself while trying to master Mandarin tones on the streets in Beijing.

On a closing note - I will be the first to admit that the other extreme doesn't hold water with me either. I've read articles and journals which insist that a single global language is the way to go - that native languages isolate communities and that peace would finally come to the planet if only we could understand one another. I love the idea of a unifying language that everyone could learn (as a second option), but not at the expense of 7,000 other idioms.

Let's hold onto a few, just to keep things interesting

...And to give me a legitimate-sounding excuse to spend six more months away from home.