ELT World » Endangered languages Your local friendly TEFL blog Fri, 04 Jun 2010 05:32:55 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 Languages as endangered species /2009/02/languages-as-endangered-species/ /2009/02/languages-as-endangered-species/#comments Mon, 23 Feb 2009 06:51:06 +0000 david /blog/?p=153 Of the 6,000 or so languages still heard in the world, about 2,500 are at risk, and 199 have fewer than 10 speakers left, according to Unesco, as noted in the Chronicle of higher education. To bring attention to the plight of these endangered linguistic species, Unesco today unveiled an interactive online version of the latest edition of its Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger. Should we rush to blame global goliaths like English for what’s happening to the world’s linguistic diversity? Maybe not.

Manx, Aasax, Ubykh, Eyak: Once spoken in, respectively, the Isle of Man, Tanzania, Turkey, and Alaska, all four languages have died out in the last 35 years. Of the 6,000 or so languages still heard in the world, about 2,500 are at risk, and 199 have fewer than 10 speakers left, according to Unesco.

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