On endangered and lost languages

The NLSC accepts applications from any US citizen who understands English and another language ... any language. As an organization that supports Federal government agencies, we work to support as many languages as possible. But our focus is on less-common languages And since there are between 6,000 and 7,000 languages in the world, we could list hundreds that most people have never heard of.

There are many articles out that talk about a UN report that predicts that half of the world's languages will be gone by 2100. Here's just one article. Since by definition those are lesser-common languages, we are particularly sensitive about news regarding these endangered languages.

There have been several articles recently on endangered languages ... we thought it might be useful to consolidate them here rather than do individual posts.

Manx is a language spoken on the Isle of Man, off the coast of Great Britain. One article questions whether Manx is worth saving while another article two weeks later says Manx is not in danger.

Canadian news outlet often talk about aboriginal languages at risk. This article reports that Nakota, Lakota and Dakota, languages of Saskatchewan are in danger of extinction. In New Zealand, Maori may be at risk. This article recaps five rare languages ... Yuchi, Wiaramus, Nivkh, Yami and !Kung (the exclamation point indicates a clicking sound).

Here's an article that asks whether endangered languages are even worth saving.

Many feel they are. A professor and students at the University of Texas at Arlington are trying to preserve Triqui, a language in Mexico whose speakers have dropped from 6,000 in the 1980s to 1,500 today, and those folks are concentrated in just three villages. The University of Arizona is trying to save Yaqui. Again in Canada, the last three surviving speakers of Rigolet Inuktitut gathered in Labrador to record conversations in that language.

Taiwan is trying to save its indigenous languages, and so is Nigeria. A Frenchman is trying to revive Eyak in Alaska. Another French linguist is trying to save S'aoch, a language spoken on Cambodia's sea shore.

And a linguist in Massachusetts has worked to revive the Wôpanâak (Wampanoag) language, receiving a "genius grant" for her work.

Several rare languages have taken root in New York City, including Vlashki, Garifuna and Mamuju.

But not all languages can be saved. Cochin Creole Portuguese disappeared with its last speaker's death in August. The last member of a 65,000-year-old Andaman Island tribe died in February, taking Bo, one of the world's earliest languages to the grave. Tarùsc, in Italy, was spoken by a community of master umbrellla makers, but it died many years ago.