Como citar: Haboud, Marleen. (2026 [2025]). “Lenguas indígenas del Ecuador: entre la vulnerabilidad y la revitalización. Cuando los datos hablan a los hablantes…”. En Gugenberger, Eva/Hilbig, Philine (eds.) (2025, en prensa): Lenguas regionales y minoritarias: Reflexiones, métodos y estrategias para su mantenimiento y revitalización. Regional- und Minderheitensprachen: Reflexionen, Methoden und Strategien zu ihrer Erhaltung und Revitalisierung. Berlin: Peter Lang.

Abstract

According to the World Bank (2023), there are approximately 8,324 languages (spoken and signed) in the world, with around 7,000 languages still in use, of which about 50% are being displaced. In this regard, the Indigenous languages spoken in Ecuador are no exception, as all of them show varying degrees of vulnerability, and some are at risk of disappearing. This means that communicative interactions in Indigenous languages are increasingly diminishing, reducing the possibility of maintaining permanent intergenerational transmission—a situation that decreases the number of young speakers, impacting not only linguistic vitality but also the possibility of maintaining the communities’ ancestral knowledge and cultural values.

Nevertheless, in recent years, various responses aimed at the recovery and strengthening of languages have emerged from members of Indigenous communities who self-identify as language activists, and from national and international institutions, as well.