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The World's Languages Are Fast Becoming Extinct

Posted by kdawson on from the culture-drain dept.

Ant sends news of a report, released a couple of weeks back by the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages in Oregon, on the alarming rate of extinction of the world's languages. While half of all languages have gone extinct in the last 500 years, the half-life is dropping: half of the 7,000 languages spoken today won't exist by the year 2100. The NY Times adds this perspective: "83 languages with 'global' influence are spoken and written by 80 percent of the world population. Most of the others face extinction at a rate, the researchers said, that exceeds that of birds, mammals, fish and plants."

3 of 939 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Good thing? by reddish · · Score: 5, Informative

    From The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy:

    "Meanwhile, the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation."
  2. Re:English does not borrow from other languages.. by rssrss · · Score: 5, Informative

    "The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary."

    -- James Nicoll

    --
    In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
  3. Re:What will happen to English? by spxero · · Score: 5, Informative

    There's also the apostrophe's property of showing ownership or possession.