With half of all languages predicted to die out in decades, activists are turning to online tools to preserve them
Every year, the world loses some of its 7,000 languages. Parents stop speaking them to their children, words are forgotten and communities lose the ability to read their own scripts. The rate of loss is quickening, from one every three months a decade ago to one every 40 days in 2019 – meaning nine languages die a year.
The UN’s culture agency, Unesco, says predictions that half the world’s languages will have died out by the end of the century are optimistic.
About Author
More Stories
Male mosquitoes to be genetically engineered to poison females with semen in Australian research
Memo to Trump: US telecoms is vulnerable to hackers. Please hang up and try again | John Naughton
Bizarre Australian mole even more unusual than first thought, new research reveals