A language dies every 14 days
Recommended for Middle Grades
While this seems like a lot, in reality, most of them have very few speakers. In fact, studies show that one language dies every fourteen days. By the next century, nearly half the roughly 7, 000 languages spoken on Earth might disappear. This will happen as communities abandon native tongues in favour of more commonly-used languages such as English, Mandarin, or Spanish.
There are various causes for a language to become vulnerable or extinct, a bit like endangered plants and animals. The explanations are endless. It may be because of the economic process, modernization, imperialism, or linguicide (killing of languages). Experts have calculated that around 6,900 languages are on the verge of going extinct by the end of the twenty-first century.
How many languages are spoken in the world today?
Today, over 7000 languages are spoken around the world.
Dying languages
A language will die quickly once tiny communities of native speakers get tired of it. This could also be due to war and natural disasters. For instance, in El Salvador, there was a horrible period of killings and death in 1932. After that, the people who spoke a language called cacaopera lenca abandoned their natural language. It was to avoid being killed.
Sometimes languages also die out because the native speakers become bilingual (knowing two languages). Many times, it is because of migration, marriage, or learning a more widely-used language that will benefit them more. Hence, as time goes by, speakers lose proficiency (expertise) in their native language.
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