Preservation of cultural diversity
(Credit: Eric Lefeuvre – Colette Grinevald)
- Approximately 6,000 languages are spoken on earth.
- 90% of Internet pages are written in only 12 languages.
- 96% of languages are spoken by only 4% of the world’s population and 500 of these are spoken by fewer than 100 individuals.
- On average, a language dies out every 15 days, according to UNESCO experts.
- If urgent measures are not taken, 90% of the world’s languages may well disappear during this century.
Today, the instability of our economic and ecological model most assuredly influences declining cultural heritage. When what a culture brings to the universal experience of mankind is negated, violence is never far off.
Thus, the struggle to defend diversity is also a struggle for peace. Therefore, the Fondation Chirac makes the issue of safeguarding languages and cultures threatened with extinction atop priority.
The Fondation Chirac’s projects
Sorosoro, so the languages of the world may prosper!
Named after an Araki word - a language now spoken by only eight people in Vanuatu, a group of Pacific islands - meaning "breath, speech, language," the SOROSORO project resolutely fits within the scope of the struggle to defend cultural diversity recognized and taken up by UNESCO as a necessary condition for development and the maintenance of peace.
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Managing Director for preservation of cultural diversity
News and events
Sorosoro news
See more on Sorosoro: video, languages, agenda... This week: Sorosoro moving on in our exploration of Akele marriage this week with this new video raising the question of polygamy. Has Jean Kédine convinced everyone? > Read more
Adapting the MDGs to new issues, by Philippe Brongniart
On May 19, 2010, the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs brought together French leaders in the field of cooperation and development to discuss the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). > Read more
Sorosoro news
See more on Sorosoro: video, languages, agenda... > Read more
