One language dies every 14 days. By the next century nearly half of the roughly 7,000 languages spoken on Earth will likely disappear, as communities abandon native tongues in favor of English, Mandarin, or Spanish.
Right now, 9 languages a year, or one every 40 days, cease to be spoken. By 2080, the rate will rise to 16 languages per year. By the middle of the next century, we will be losing our linguistic heritage at the rate of 26 languages each year—one every two weeks.
90% of languages will become extinct because of migration, linguist claims. Sci-fi visions of the future may focus on soaring skylines and flying cars, but the world in 100 years may not only look different, but sound different too.
Now, some scholars have predicted that roughly 20 Native American languages will survive into 2050 — meaning more than 130 languages could cease being spoken in the coming decades. For indigenous communities and researchers, the rush is on to stabilize and preserve as many of these rapidly fading languages as possible.
A new study found that of the world's 7,000 recognised languages, around half are currently endangered. Nearly a fifth of the world's languages could disappear by the end of the century, a new study warns.
But Latin isn't the only dead language, some of the other known dead languages are Sanskrit, Biblical Hebrew, Ancient Greek and Gothic, all of which are still studied both academically and religiously.
Although languages have always become extinct throughout human history, they are currently dying at an accelerated rate because of globalization, mass migration, cultural replacement, imperialism, neocolonialism and linguicide (language killing).
The revival of the Hebrew language is the only truly successful example of a revived dead language. The Hebrew language survived into the medieval period as the language of Jewish liturgy and rabbinic literature.
Hebrew was the only dead language ever to be revived from extinction.
Language grows and continuously adapts, evolving as we come up with better words that reflect our society or culture. In particular, it mirrors the complexity with which our lives intertwine with technology.
Some may protest that it is not English but Mandarin Chinese that will eventually become the world's language, because of the size of the Chinese population and the increasing economic might of their nation. But that's unlikely. For one, English happens to have gotten there first.
Contrary to what many people may believe, the answer to our very query of will the English Language eventually become extinct is as straightforward and definitive as it can be. “Yes,” the English Language we know today, the current universal language of the world will die out in the future.
English will most likely not become the dominant world language as more people speak more than one language, a language expert reports. The world faces a future of people speaking more than one language, with English no longer seen as likely to become dominant, a British language expert says in a new analysis.
250 First Languages were spoken around Australia at the time of British invasion. There were many dialects within each language group. Today, only 120 First Languages are still spoken.
Language extinction
Many of the languages spoken today are in constant extinction. Linguistic predictions say that of 6,000 languages that are globally spoken today, around 600 of them after 100 years will have simplified versions or will not exist at all.
It is crucial to understand that languages represent cultures. This reiterates the need to protect endangered languages. Without its language, a culture can die out quickly and become lost to time. Above all, preserving languages is as critical as preserving diverse wildlife to maintain a balanced ecosystem.
The archaeological proof we have today allows us to state that the oldest dead language in the world is the Sumerian language. Dating back to at least 3500 BC, the oldest proof of written Sumerian was found in today's Iraq, on an artifact known as the Kish Tablet.
Njerep is the rarest language that has been declared extinct by experts. It is native to Cameroon and does not have more than five speakers today. These speakers are not fluent in the tongue.
Of the thousands of different languages spoken around the world, the one language that has been regarded as the 'queen of all languages' is Kannada. Kannada is spoken in the southern state of Karnataka and is one of the most prominent Dravidian languages in India.
During language loss—sometimes referred to as obsolescence in the linguistic literature—the language that is being lost generally undergoes changes as speakers make their language more similar to the language to which they are shifting.
Much like learning a modern language, learning a dead language also has many of the cognitive benefits that language learning offers us, from an improved memory and decision making skills to a decreased risk of dementia. Finally, learning a dead language can actually help you to learn many modern languages.
However there are times when Old English words that have become obsolete can re-enter a language for everyday use. Thanks to one team of linguists research, a list of obsolete words that have been revived due to their rather unique relevance to today's social landscape…
Originally spoken by small groups of people living along the lower Tiber River, Latin spread with the increase of Roman political power, first throughout Italy and then throughout most of western and southern Europe and the central and western Mediterranean coastal regions of Africa.
It's unlikely that we'll see a world that speaks one language any time soon. Protecting each individual countries' cultures is a huge barrier, but an important one to ensure our world is as beautifully diverse as it's always been.
Recorded and printed documentation are essential for preserving languages' sound and context. Linguists, anthropologists, and committed citizens work to interview, record, and document languages to preserve them via durable, physical media.