Learn the tongue you're born into, for it could save a language. That's the message yesterday from United Nations representatives in Panama and minority language promoters worldwide who were marking International Mother Language Day.

Headquartered in Panama, the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) regional department for Latin America and the Caribbean made a call to countries to keep their endangered languages alive. There are close to 500 catalogued languages in Latin America but only a fraction of the region's schools offer bilingual education because of “scarce budgetary spending on the part of governments,” according to UNICEF's regional director, Nils Kastberg.

“Therefore, it shouldn't be a surprise that the geographical areas inhabited by indigenous people have the highest rates of illiteracy, of children being left back at school or dropping out,” he said.

The U.N. proclaimed 2008 the International Year of Languages, aiming to encourage governments and citizens to make a greater effort to protect their tongues, particularly those in danger of extinction.

“A language is not just a communication code, it's also a way of getting to know and categorizing reality, nature, social relations and emotions,” Kastberg said.

There are up to 23 different languages spoken in Guatemala alone – one of which, Garifuna, with hints of English, French and Spanish, can also be heard in other countries on the Caribbean. Bibrí is another example of a language spoken across borders in Nicaragua and Honduras and parts of Panama and Costa Rica.