According to UNESCO's latest study on world languages in danger two of the more common languages of Peru were included ; Quechua and Aymara. Although some 6 million Peruvians speak one of the other, with quechua being the more prevalent of the two, they still managed to make the list of endangered languages.
More needs to be done to ensure that these two languages, officially recognized by Peru's Constitution, do not indeed become extinct. The fact that they are officially recognized is really just lip service as the Peruvian government does very little to promote or use their languages in its official business. Translators are rarely used during government speeches, bilingual workers in government offices, schools, and banks are scarce, and outside of Movistar forget finding a customer service agent on the phone.
Peru has one of two different options: One would be to follow the path of other countries, like Canada, that have a thriving minority language and begin to incorporate its other languages into the daily life of all its citizens; the second would be to remove quechua and aymara from the constitution as official languages.
Even with the potential increased costs, I would hope that the government adapts a model similar to what is done in Canada and other countries than watch to rich languages potentially die. It might be time to spend some of this economic boom money to invest in making Peru a truly multi-lingual society.
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