The Culture and Education Ministry is intensifying its efforts to identify local languages and keep them from going extinct.

The ministry’s language agency head, Dadang Sunendar, said as quoted by Antara that his institution had identified 646 local languages. The agency hopes to identify more languages over the next two months.

Blessed by a diverse culture, Indonesia has seen a number of local languages go extinct because no one uses them anymore. Some of these include Hoti, Hukumina, Hulung, Loun, Mapia, Moksela, Palumata, Saponi, Serua and Teun.

Dadang said the ministry had instructed all provinces in Indonesia to select language ambassadors, two from each province, to work to preserve near-extinct local languages.

South Kalimantan language ambassador Muhammad Andri HF told Antara there were 18 local languages in the province.

He said, however, that only the Banjar language was frequently used in daily life. “We are trying to preserve other languages,” said Andri. (mos/ebf)