Half of the world's languages are under the threat of extinction with China facing the loss of 41 ethnic group dialects , the China Radio International (CRI) reported on Monday.

As Feb 21, 2011 marks the 11th International Mother Language Day, UNESCO, the cultural arm of the United Nations (UN) has made safeguarding and promoting languages as its theme, according to their website.

Speaking of the 41 endangered ethnic group languages in China, Dr Bradley, a language expert, says we risk losing part of our history. "Every time a language disappears that means the whole cultural knowledge of that people disappears." He also says the reasons that cause the possible disappearance of ethnic languages around China include the wide use of Putonghua (Chinese mandarin).

"Putonghua, standard Chinese, is so dominant that everybody wants to use that instead of their own language. So there's a two-way tension between the right to maintain your own language and the desire to become part of the mainstream."

The Chinese government is aware of the importance of protecting ethnic group languages, and according to the State Ethnic Affairs Commission (SEAC), China is expected to roll out its first examination to test the proficiency of certain students and workers in a language spoken by the Zhuang ethnic people in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

China has also established more than 10,000 schools that teach both Mandarin and an ethnic minority language, according to Xinhua. 2,500 training classes in which an ethnic group language is taught as the primary language are also to be held to eliminate illiteracy.

The International Mother Language Day is an observance held annually on Feb 21 worldwide to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. It was first announced by UNESCO on 17 November 1999.

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