* Object Name: The Language Tree
* Title: World's Languages in Danger!!
* Creator: Ti-Wei Lin (Diwai Kawanishi)
* Date: March. 6
* Summary:
The language tree distinguishes the living languages and different levels of endangered languages. Also, some of the most endangered areas are shown in the tree. In order to protect culture heritages, the endangered language becomes an issue.
* News Sources:
1. New edition of UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=28377&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
2. the UNESCO Map of the World’s Languages in Danger (PDF format)
http://cms01.unesco.org/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CLT/CLT/pdf/UNESCO-EndangeredLanguages-WorldMap-20090218.pdf
3. Statistics by country or area (Excel format)
http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/UNESCO-EndangeredLanguages-Statistics-20090217.xls
* Video Link or Embedding:
, or click here, the background music was sung by Difang Duana, and the language is Pangcah.
* Interaction:
1. The volumes of the objects represent the number of the languages.
2. The color and the angle of the branches represent the level of seriousness.
3. When users click on the branch, the related objects will be lit on so users can concentrate on the information on it.
* Motivation:
Languages embody unique local knowledge of cultures and natural systems in the regions in which they are spoken and such diversity is essential for promoting scientific and technological progress since it is the interaction of ideas that is one of the major generators of human invention. An enormous number of languages represents a vast, largely unmapped terrain on which linguists, cognitive scientists, and philosophers can chart the full capabilities and limits of the mind; Besides, languages serve as evidence for understanding human history.
* Description:
1. The main trunk of the tree shows the 6000 current living languages of the world, and the five branches with different colors show the different levels of endangered languages, which are Unsafe, Definitely endangered, Severely endangered, Critically endangered, Extinct(since the 1950s). (ordered by seriousness.)
2. The larger the angles of the branch, the more easily the branch fall down(the more easily the languages disappear.)
3. The volumes of the branches represent the amount of the endangered languages in each level. Unsafe: 607, Definitely endangered: 632, Severely endangered: 502, Critically endangered: 538, Extinct: 219, and Total of languages referenced in the Atlas: 2498.
4. Once one of the branch is touched, the branch will be lit. Users can switch the light in order to concentrate on the branch they are looking at.
5. Near each branch there are balls which represent Top 10 countries with most number of endangered languages of the level. Once a branch is lit, then the Top 10 countries will show their names on the top of the balls.
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