Working to protect cultural diversity, the initiative joins DCI’s quality brands and commitment to education, UNESCO’s on-going work on endangered cultures, and the UN Works’ mission to develop partnerships that raise awareness about key global issues.

The broadcast will include nine short-form programs that capture stories from the few remaining people who speak these threatened languages. The stories were filmed in Scotland, Sweden, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Argentina, and India. Websites from UNESCO and the UN Works Programme will complement the short-form programs to further bring these little known languages and cultures to millions of people worldwide.

On International Mother Language Day, Discovery Channel will also air Archives of Babel, a program that attempts to reconstruct the world’s first language, as spoken by every human being at a given moment in history. Many of today’s languages have roots originating from that single language.

Communities lose some of their unique cultural heritage. It is estimated that at the height of language diversity there were between 7,000 and 8,000 distinct languages. Today they are in a rapid state of decline and linguists are facing a race against time to document them for posterity. According to recent estimates, very few people speak most of the 6,000 known languages around the world. Half of today’s languages have fewer than 10,000 speakers and a quarter have fewer than 1,000.

“Discovery’s partnership with UNESCO and the UN Works Programme,” said Judith A. McHale, President and Chief Operating Officer, Discovery Communications, Inc., “works to protect cultural diversity and helps to promote languages as a means of communication and exchange.”

“Languages are at the heart of humanity’s intangible heritage. They are born, they evolve and, sometimes, they are doomed to die. Yet, it behoves us to do all in our power to safeguard them so as to preserve the world’s invaluable cultural diversity. To this end and to rise to the challenge of multilingualism, UNESCO supports language policies that promote mother tongues,” said Koïchiro Matsuura, UNESCO’s Director-General.

“Promoting respect for diversity is a vital part of the United Nations global mission,” said Shashi Tharoor, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information. “The UN Works’ media partnership with Discovery and UNESCO will educate audiences around the world about the importance of preserving endangered languages that give voice to humanity’s rich cultural heritage. When the world loses a language we lose part of ourselves,” Mr Tharoor added.

Each organization will tap its unique resources to generate awareness and exposure for endangered languages, as languages are the fundamental vehicle to safeguard, transmit and promote cultural heritage:

Discovery Communications, Inc. is committed to creating stand alone programming on its global networks, developing promotions, and using its airtime to highlight dying languages and bring attention to UNESCO’s efforts to educate people around the world about the importance of cultural heritage.

UNESCO provides access to information and prominent members of the scientific and academic community that are working to promote linguistic diversity and multilingual education. Detailed information will be provided through UNESCO’s website and the UN Works Programme— about the UN’s projects that promote cultural heritage.

The UN Works Programme collaborates with public and private partners to promote key global issues such as cultural diversity and endangered languages through media and educational outreach. UN Works will feature on its website stories that focus on the people and places profiled in the short-form programs.