A Study of Iran’s Languages Based on UNESCO’s Degree of LanguageEndangerment Criteria (Case Study: Taleshi Language)

The vitality of languages depends on their speakers. The emergence and growth of cultures and their cross-generational transmission are only possible through language. It is true indeed that a community’s cultural, historical, and literal heritage diminishes with the death of its language. Based on Ethnologue’s estimate 652 languages are today living in Southern Asia, including Iran. Of this number, 25 indigenous language clusters are spoken in Iran. Seven of these 25 languages and their subcategories are dying and about one third are endangered. Taleshi is one of these languages. The Taleshi-speaking community comprises about one percent of the Iranian population living in northwest and west of Gilan. Due to neighboring Gilaki and Turkish, along with the influence of Persian, Taleshi has undergone profound changes so that it is now classified as an endangered language. The aim of this paper is to introduce the UNESCO’s six level categorization criteria of language endangerment. It also provides a brief report on the current status of Taleshi in Iran and the contributing factors to its decline.