THUG SAOIRE na Nollag deis dom rud beag léitheoireachta a dhéanamh ar na leabhair a bhí ina luí ar an tseilf. Is teangeolaí é K. David Harrison a scríobh When Languages Die: The Extinction of the World's Languages and the Erosion of Human Knowledge(Oxford University Press).
Aithneoidh lucht na Gaeilge mórán dá bhfuil le rá ag Harrison faoi thábhacht teangacha agus an luach cultúrtha, intleachtach agus eolaíoch a bhaineann leo.
Tugann lucht labhartha !Xoon Iartharach, mionteanga sa Namaib, "tithe fearthainne" ar néalta, mar shampla. Scríobhann Harrison go bhfuil an cur síos go hálainn mar íomhá agus go dtugann sí níos mó eolais ná mar a dhéanann an Béarla nó an Fhraincis sa chás céanna.
Tá mórán de na teangacha seo i mbaol. Scríobhann Harrison: "The last speakers of probably half of the worlds languages are alive today. As they grow old and die, their voices will fall silent ... Most of the world's languages have never been written down anywhere or scientifically described.
"We do not even know what exactly we stand to lose - for science, for humanity, for posterity - when languages die. An immense edifice of human knowledge, painstakingly assembled over millennia by countless minds, is eroding, vanishing into oblivion."
Beatha teanga í a labhairt; buanú teanga í a scríobh. Mana simplí atá ann ach fíor ar fad.