14. Communicating in Basque to promote sustainability

2023/06/07 Elhuyar Zientzia

• Dekalogoa
• Ingurumena

Another crisis facing the environmental emergency is the global loss of linguistic diversity. According to UNESCO, 50% of the world’s languages are about to be lost. Researchers are becoming increasingly clear that the emergence of languages and the emergence of climate are interrelated crises. To the extent that the overexploitation of nature and social injustices have many common elements, colonization and the abuse of historical power that many languages have suffered is also in the same context.

However, science has shown that minority languages are a valuable tool to combat the environmental emergency. In fact, languages are a reflection of the relationship between individuals and cultures with nature and, in fact, many historically minority linguistic communities remain deeply rooted in nature. They have internalized the conservation of nature and their languages retain a detailed knowledge of it, which the ancestors have accumulated over the centuries evolving with it. They are the repository of ecological memory and therefore valuable tools for sustainability.

Euskera also has a rich vocabulary related to nature, which helps to know and understand indigenous nature. Considering that the human being feels strongly committed to the landscape around him and to the mother tongue, until being part of his identity, the Basque Country is a valuable tool for transmitting ecological knowledge, strengthening its adherence to nature and making the Basque community a sustainability agent.

However, many of the world’s minority languages are on the verge of being lost due, on the one hand, to outstanding abuses and, on the other hand, to the ecological agents who cross. As it has been recognized that cultural and linguistic diversity are fundamental to the sustainable development of peoples, it is interesting to take into account the approach of linguistic ecology. Linguistic ecology is the knowledge that studies the relationship between languages and environmental variables.

Building a development model based on equality and human values requires preserving linguistic diversity. By moving the principle of equality to languages, equality is not about treating languages in different situations equally, but about enabling them to have the same opportunities. Equity and sustainability will therefore come from the political, social, economic and legal protection of local cultures and languages.