联合国教科文组织
在大多数人看来，“海冰”或“浮冰”足以指代水面上形成的大片冰层。可白令海峡和格陵兰岛的居民却有将近1500 种表达方式来说明海冰现象的方方面面。撇开一些稀奇古怪的事不谈，假如因纽特阿留申语系消亡，这些术语包含的所有知识都将随之消失，那么科学家们在当前的气候变化时代将失去有价值的信息。
到21世纪末，全球现存7000 种语言中将有40%因使用者不足而面临消失的风险，巴西语言学家维克托·D. O. 桑托斯和意大利插画师安娜·福拉蒂联袂创作的《我们何以成为人类》（What Makes Us Human）着重强调了语言多样性的重要意义。这本书在2022年经过专家评审团的评议，入选dPICTUS线上平台未出版绘本展区（展出尚未出版的优秀绘本），2023年入选久负盛名的“国际青年图书馆”，而后在巴西出版。
What makes us human © Eerdmans Books for Young Readers / UNESCO
名字的意义
在莎士比亚的悲剧中，当朱丽叶得知罗密欧姓蒙太古时，她不仅自问：“名字有什么意义呢？我们叫做玫瑰的这一种花，要是换了个名字，它的香味还是同样芬芳。”这个问题听起来更像是语言学论文，而不是儿童文学。《我们何以成为人类》通过谜语的形式，说明语言是一种工具，由人类创造，经过一代代人的构建，获得了形式和意义。
在这本书出现之前，也曾有儿童读物就语言的本质和功能发出质疑，例如爱德华·利尔（Edward Lear）的《荒诞书》（The Book of Nonsense）（1846年），塞西尔·乔斯林（Sesyle Joslin）和莫里斯·桑达克（Maurice Sendak）合著的《亲爱的，你说什么？——各种场合礼仪指南》（What Do You Say, Dear? A book of manners for all occasions）（1958年），还有卡塔琳娜·索布拉尔（Catarina Sobral）创作的《阿奇姆帕》（Achimpa）（2012年）。
“《我们何以成为人类》展现了多语言世界的丰富性，同时也揭示了其脆弱性”
《我们何以成为人类》展现了多语言世界的丰富性，同时也揭示了其脆弱性。因此，这本书已成为“国际土著语言十年”（2022—2032年）的重要工具。这项活动由联合国教科文组织与联合国经济和社会事务部牵头主持，旨在提醒人们注意多种语言正在以惊人的速度快速消亡，迫切需要采取行动来保护我们的语言。
What makes us human © Eerdmans Books for Young Readers / UNESCO
出版社的鼎力支持
为宣传“国际土著语言十年”，联合国教科文组织正在合作出版单语版和双语版的《我们何以成为人类》，涉及全球主要语言以及区域和土著语言。这样做的目的是维护多语言和多样化的世界。加拿大“四百击”（Les 400 Coups）出版社负责人西蒙·德·若卡斯（Simon de Jocas）解释说：“自人类出现以来，我们就找到了与同类交流的方式。书面文字——以及后来出现的书籍——帮助这些语言留下自己的印记，造福子孙后代。现在要靠我们朝着正确的方向发展。”
“教学语言与家庭语言相同的孩子在小学毕业时能够理解文章内容的可能性要高出30%”
能够与联合国教科文组织合作，表明出版社在振兴区域和土著语言方面可以起到重要作用。我们现在了解到，教学语言与家庭语言相同的孩子在小学毕业时能够理解文章内容的可能性要高出30%，他们的社交能力也会更出色。为此，联合国教科文组织将每年的2月21日定为“国际母语日”，呼吁各国政府在学校教育的早期阶段推广多语言教育。
“让大众爱上阅读”
在响应这一号召的国家中，围绕教科书和儿童文学的新兴市场方兴未艾。撒哈拉以南非洲就出现了这种情况，当地新兴市场出现的种种挑战引发了广泛争议。一些人认为当地语言的书籍就应该反映当地的传统，可另一些人认为语言是通向其他文化的桥梁。科特迪瓦作家兼书商艾德维格-蕾妮·德罗（Edwige-Renée Dro）持后一种观点，她认为当前的挑战是：“我们现在必须让大众爱上阅读。”
各方还可以借此机会，将出版行业链上的所有参与者团结起来，共同致力于同一项事业：接受本土遗产，不再延续殖民留下的反应、孤立和消亡。出版社具备创造力和活力；政府手握改变政策的权力和手段。例如，智利购买了2.7万册西班牙语-马普切语双语版《我们何以成为人类》（可持续星球出版社/联合国教科文组织），将提供给学校和公共图书馆。
出版社和政府可以携手合作，为孩子们创造机会，促使他们去思考人何以为人。每个文字的背后都蕴含着一份馈赠、一种身份、一种鲜活的遗产。每种文化中的每个人都可以为保持这个世界的丰富和多元做出一份贡献。
What makes us human
Presented in the form of a riddle, this illustrated book by Victor D.O. Santos and Anna Forlati speaks in favour of a diverse and multilingual world. UNESCO has joined forces with publishers around the world to ensure the book is distributed in as many languages as possible.
Cristina Puerta
UNESCO
For most people, the terms “sea ice” or “pack ice” are sufficient to designate the expanse of ice formed on the water’s surface. Inhabitants of the Bering Strait and Greenland, however, use nearly 1,500 expressions to evoke the multiple facets of this phenomenon. Curious fact aside, if the Inuit-Aleut languages were to disappear, all of the knowledge associated with this terminology would disappear with them, depriving scientists of useful information in this time of climate change.
With 40 per cent of the world's 7,000 living languages at risk of disappearing for lack of speakers by the end of the 21st century, What Makes Us Human, the book by Brazilian linguist Victor D.O. Santos and Italian illustrator Anna Forlati, highlights the importance of language diversity. Before being published in Brazil, it was selected in 2022 by the specialist jury of The Unpublished Picture Book Showcase by dPICTUS (which showcases some of the best picture books yet to be published) and the prestigious International Youth Library in 2023.
What's in a name?
The question Juliet asks herself when she learns that Romeo is a Montague in Shakespeare's tragedy (“What's in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet”) seems more the stuff of linguistics than of children's literature. Yet What Makes Us Human demonstrates, in the form of a riddle, that language is an instrument, a human construction to which an infinite number of generations have given form and meaning.
In questioning the nature and function of language, the book is in the same vein as other children's texts such as Edward Lear's The Book of Nonsense (1846), What Do You Say, Dear? A book of manners for all occasions by Sesyle Joslin and Maurice Sendak (1958) or Achimpa by Catarina Sobral (2012).
“What Makes Us Human reveals the richness of a multilingual world, but also its fragility”
What Makes Us Human reveals the richness of a multilingual world, but also its fragility. It is thus an essential tool for the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Languages (2022-2032), which UNESCO is leading with the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs to draw attention to the alarming disappearance of languages and the urgent need to safeguard them.
Committed publishing houses
To promote the Decade, UNESCO is co-publishing monolingual and bilingual versions of What Makes Us Human, in majority languages as well as in regional and indigenous languages. The aim is to preserve a plurilingual and diverse experience of the world. “For as long as humans have existed, they have found a way to communicate with their fellows. The written word, and later books, gave these languages the opportunity to leave their mark, to serve future generations. Now it's up to us to evolve in the right direction,” explains Simon de Jocas, director of the Canadian publishing house Les 400 Coups.
“Children schooled in the language spoken at home have a 30% higher probability of understanding what they read by the end of primary school”
This cooperation with UNESCO demonstrates the role publishing houses can play in revitalizing regional and indigenous languages. We now know that children schooled in the language spoken at home are 30 per cent more likely to understand what they read by the end of primary school, and they have better social skills. This is why UNESCO celebrates International Mother Language Day on 21 February, calling on governments to promote multilingual education in the early years of schooling.
“Create a reading public”
In countries heeding the call, a new market for school texts and children's literature is developing. Such is the case in sub-Saharan Africa, where the challenges of the emerging market are widely debated. While some believe that books in local languages should reflect their traditions, others see these languages as bridges to other cultures. That is the opinion of Edwige-Renée Dro, an Ivorian author and bookseller, who describes the challenge as follows: “Now we have to create a reading public.”
Here is also an opportunity to unite the players in the publishing chain around a single project: accepting our own indigenous heritage, and not perpetuating colonial reflexes, its isolation and disappearance. Publishing houses have the creativity and energy; governments have the power and the means to change policies. Chile, for example, has acquired 27,000 copies of the bilingual Spanish-Mapuzugún edition (Planeta Sostenible/UNESCO) to equip schools and public libraries.
Together, publishing houses and governments can give many children the chance to think about what they are made of. For behind every word lies a legacy, an identity, a living heritage. Every person, in every culture, can contribute to keeping the world rich and plural.
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