Language and ethnobiological skills decline precipitously in Papua New Guinea, the world's most linguistically diverse nation
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F60076658%3A12310%2F21%3A43902962" target="_blank" >RIV/60076658:12310/21:43902962 - isvavai.cz</a>
Alternative codes found
RIV/61988987:17310/21:A2202D95 RIV/60077344:_____/21:00542903
Result on the web
<a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/118/22/e2100096118" target="_blank" >https://www.pnas.org/content/118/22/e2100096118</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2100096118" target="_blank" >10.1073/pnas.2100096118</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
Language and ethnobiological skills decline precipitously in Papua New Guinea, the world's most linguistically diverse nation
Original language description
Papua New Guinea is home to >10% of the world's languages and rich and varied biocultural knowledge, but the future of this diversity remains unclear. We measured language skills of 6,190 students speaking 392 languages (5.5% of the global total) and modeled their future trends using individual-level variables characterizing family language use, socioeconomic conditions, students' skills, and language traits. This approach showed that only 58% of the students, compared to 91% of their parents, were fluent in indigenous languages, while the trends in key drivers of language skills (language use at home, proportion of mixed-language families, urbanization, students' traditional skills) predicted accelerating decline of fluency to an estimated 26% in the next generation of students. Ethnobiological knowledge declined in close parallel with language skills. Varied medicinal plant uses known to the students speaking indigenous languages are replaced by a few, mostly nonnative species for the students speaking English or Tok Pisin, the national lingua franca. Most (88%) students want to teach indigenous language to their children. While crucial for keeping languages alive, this intention faces powerful external pressures as key factors (education, cash economy, road networks, and urbanization) associated with language attrition are valued in contemporary society.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
J<sub>imp</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
50404 - Anthropology, ethnology
Result continuities
Project
<a href="/en/project/GA18-23889S" target="_blank" >GA18-23889S: Ecological and geographical determinants of modern human diversification: a phylogenetic approach on global and local scales</a><br>
Continuities
S - Specificky vyzkum na vysokych skolach
Others
Publication year
2021
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Name of the periodical
Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences of The United States of America
ISSN
0027-8424
e-ISSN
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Volume of the periodical
118
Issue of the periodical within the volume
22
Country of publishing house
US - UNITED STATES
Number of pages
8
Pages from-to
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UT code for WoS article
000659434200016
EID of the result in the Scopus database
2-s2.0-85106906723