What is the value of preserving indigenous languages?

The preservation of indigenous languages has great value and importance in the world; this is because losing the language of a group whose lineage has gone back many years would also mean the loss of cultural diversity as well as ecological knowledge. A whole perspective disappearing from earth just limits the possibility of various interpretations of the world and how it works. What leads to people even having to preserve an endangered language starts with rise of a more dominant higher power against smaller groups. Numerous factors such as the economic might, military muscle and the cultural prestige of a country are what lead to that nation's language becoming more dominant than others. Rapid globalization and the need for development in the world have led to classification of the more powerful groups and the minorities. Forced civilization for the minorities leads to limitations which prevent the elder passing their knowledge, language and culture on to the younger generation. This eventually would lead to the loss of a language, accounting to statistical estimates such as losing up to 90% of the world's 7000 languages in the following 100 years. This would not only mean the loss of the language, but also the entire history of a community, their ancestral beliefs and environmental knowledge. There are multiple reasons for the preservation of indigenous languages which include scientific, artistic and historical values. These would contain possible medicinal documentation, cultural identity of the people but also the prevention of loss of creativeness in the way that as you reduce linguistic diversity you also limit your thought process as to be critically thinking in one language. The diversity in language allows for a more complex and various point of views which can shape the way one thinks. One language might not have a direct translation to a word in another language, leading to more limitations in the way of our thought process. The more languages we have preserved the more variety there would be in the way we interpret and understand things therefore having a better understanding of our world and history.