Inclusive Naming Initiative

You can ride a train for two hours in Switzerland and watch the world around you change languages. One moment, your ticket inspector greets you in Swiss German, two stops later, it’s French and by the time you reach Ticino, the rhythm shifts to Italian. Somewhere in the valleys of Graubünden, you might hear Romansh , a language spoken by less than 1% of the population, yet proudly displayed on official signs.

Desculpa, você fala inglês?

Sorry, do you speak English?

That was the question Lucas, a 25-year-old developer from São Paulo, faced during a virtual global hackathon. The international team he joined was excited to innovate but as the only Brazilian in the group, Lucas soon realized he wasn’t just translating words, he was translating his culture, his communication style, and even his identity. They spoke English, he spoke tech in Portuguese.

Every two weeks, the world loses a language. That means a community somewhere says its final prayer or forgets how to name the stars in its own tongue. According to UNESCO , more than 3,000 of the 7,000+ spoken languages today are endangered. And when a language dies, so does the culture, memory, and wisdom it carries.