The vanishing diversity of the world's most endangered languages
In short: A linguistic survey highlights a critical decline in global language diversity, noting that many tongues are down to just a few remaining speakers. From the Eyak language in Alaska to the Northwest Caucasian Ubykh, the number of fluent individuals in several communities has dwindled to fewer than ten.
The author documents the precarious state of various languages, such as Mandan, Osage, and Iowa, which each have fewer than six fluent speakers. This decline represents a permanent loss of unique linguistic structures.
The text provides a descriptive account of specific language populations at a single point in time. Because it is a descriptive summary of speaker counts, it cannot predict the exact timing of future extinctions.
Why it matters: The disappearance of a language represents a permanent loss of unique human history and linguistic structure.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Research: Krauss (1992). The world's languages in crisis. Language.
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