Language extinction erases unique medicinal plant knowledge, study finds
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A University of Zurich study found that over 75% of medicinal plant uses are known to a single language, with each language loss erasing irreplaceable knowledge. The Catalogue of Endangered Languages counts one language going extinct every three months, while UNESCO recorded 230 languages lost between 1950 and 2010. The loss extends beyond vocabulary to cultural and practical knowledge, including the last speaker of Yaghan dying in 2022.
Key Facts
- The Catalogue of Endangered Languages counts one language going extinct every three months, based on documented losses.
- UNESCO recorded 230 languages going extinct between 1950 and 2010.
- A 2021 PNAS study found that over 75% of medicinal plant uses are known to a single language and nowhere else.
- Cristina Calderón, the last native speaker of Yaghan, died in February 2022 at age 93.
Extinction Rate Estimates
UN Human Rights has repeated the widely cited estimate of one language going extinct every two weeks. Lyle Campbell and his team at the Catalogue of Endangered Languages counted languages already known to have gone quiet and arrived at roughly one every three months. Ethnologue, maintained by SIL International, classifies about 44% of the world's living languages as endangered. UNESCO's atlas recorded 230 languages going extinct between 1950 and 2010 alone.
Yaghan Language Loss
Yaghan was spoken in Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of South America. Its most famous word is mamihlapinatapai, defined as the look passed between two people who both want something to happen and neither wants to be the one to start it. Cristina Calderón, known as Abuela Cristina, was the last native speaker and died in February 2022 at 93. Yaghan had no written form until people started writing it down specifically because it was ending.
Medicinal Knowledge Erosion
Rodrigo Cámara-Leret and Jordi Bascompte at the University of Zurich analyzed three ethnobotanical datasets covering North America, northwest Amazonia, and New Guinea. The datasets included 3,597 medicinal plant species, 12,495 recorded uses, and 236 indigenous languages. Their 2021 PNAS paper found that more than 75% of medicinal uses were known to a single language and nowhere else. Of the plants with a conservation assessment, only 1-4% count as threatened depending on the region.
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Language extinction erases unique medicinal plant knowledge, study finds
