ISLAMABAD: For the speakers of endangered languages scattered across mountainous terrains and secluded valleys, the silence creeping over their mother tongues is not just linguistic loss but the erasure of identity, memory, and centuries-old folk wisdom.

These concerns were echoed at the annual conference of the Forum for Language Initiatives (FLI), held at a local hotel on Wednesday. Linguists, researchers, and representatives from over a dozen ethnic groups gathered to express a shared their fear of the extinction of their native tongues.

Over two dozen delegates from 16 language communities, spanning Chitral, Gilgit-Baltistan, and the northern peripheries of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, attended the moot to review past achievements and chart a course for 2026.

Delivering the keynote address, Dr Kamal Khan, Head of the English Department at Allama Iqbal Open University and an FLI board member, with the help of a slide show titled “Linguistic and Cultural Diversity: Preserving Our Intangible Treasures for Future Generations, ” traced the global celebration of mother tongues through history, linking it to the 2026 theme for International Mother Language Day.

“Languages are not just tools of communication, they are intangible treasures, carriers of culture, and what UNESCO calls ‘ecolinguistic capital. Their digital preservation is urgent.”

Dr Khan warned that intergenerational transmission is collapsing. Of the roughly 7,000 languages spoken worldwide today, 81% are concentrated in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. Over the last 500 years, half of all known languages have vanished.

Citing a 1992 report by linguist Michael Krauss, he gave two grim forecasts: “By the turn of this century, an optimistic estimate says 50% of today’s languages will be extinct. A pessimistic one puts the figure at 90–95 per cent.”

He posed a question to the audience: “Are we prepared to safeguard languages as intangible cultural heritage?” His answer lay in grassroots initiatives, developing orthographies, publishing in native tongues, mother-tongue-based multilingual education, policy change, digital keyboards, and translations.

Munawar Hassan from the Indus Cultural Forum (ICF) shared his organization’s decade-long journey promoting indigenous literature through its flagship Mother Tongue Literature Festival, held every third week of February in the capital since 2016.

“We are encouraging writers and poets from the peripheries,” he said, acknowledging FLI’s role in fostering cultural diversity and pledging continued collaboration.

A global perspective came from Amjad Butt of UNESCO’s Esperanto program. He warned that dominant languages, especially English, stifle linguistic diversity and serve as tools of colonisation and hegemony. In contrast, he described Esperanto as a neutral, rich, and easy-to-learn language.

Compiled by Polish linguist Dr Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof and introduced in 1887, Esperanto has UNESCO’s recognition and is spoken by 45 million people across more than 100 countries.

“It belongs to no country or religion,” Butt noted. “Yet it has great expressive power and a lively culture of its own.” Over 90,000 books have been written or translated into Esperanto, including the Quran, the Bible, Marx’s Capital, and the Geeta. China and European nations actively support it, and Butt called for its inclusion in Pakistani educational institutions.

He credited Murree-based scholar Allama Muztar Abbasi for introducing Esperanto to Pakistan and pioneering the language movement.

In the second session, representatives from 13 partner organizations, including speakers of Burushaski, Dameli, Gojri, Khowar, Shina, Palula, Ormuri, Qatavari, Wakhi, and Yadgha, shared their progress since last year’s gathering.

Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2026