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Top 10 Most Endangered Languages in the World

guardian.co.uk — There are more than 6,900 languages used around the world today, ranging in size from those with hundreds of millions of speakers to those with only one or two. Language experts now estimate that as many as half of the existing languages are endangered, and by the year 2050 they will be extinct. Here are 10 of the most endangered languages.

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  • jlpete9, on 08/27/2008, -28/+65Is that really such a bad thing?
    • rockrapdude, on 08/28/2008, -21/+13Yes it is. The cultural identity will be lost forever. Imagine, that tomorrow nobody would speak English anymore, no-one would know how and wouldn't want to. All the great advancement we would have made, all gone to waste, all for nothing. For instance, we would know the secret to immortality or even as basic as the flu, but nobody would know how to translate it into Mandarin, French or Russian. See what kind of a problem it creates?
      • Harabeck, on 08/28/2008, -4/+29Latin is a dead language but we can still translate it, I dont see your point.
      • darkmist, on 08/28/2008, -0/+15Except, English isn't one of these endangered languages. Also, even though languages such as Latin have fallen out of usage, there are enough people around that still understand it that the contributions it has made will never die away. I imagine it would be much the same for most any mainstream language. If it was used enough to be important, it would survive this "extinction". These ten languages may as well not exist.
      • Ymeg, on 08/28/2008, -1/+10But it is not as servere as that.

        Your example is outlandish and will not happen like that. Using such impossibilites to support your position only diminishes your position.

        If English were to die out, the knowledge generate under it would be translated to other languages. Death is not going to happen over night.

        The languages that are dying now do not have much behind them.
      • SRSco, on 08/28/2008, -3/+7@ Harabeck: Latin is written and spoke and understood. It isn't really dead per se (see? I just wrote something in Latin and you understood it--you can also attend mass in Latin).

        These languages won't be written and translated and reused like Latin. This is kind of a bad/sad thing (to people like me who care.)
      • LaughingMan89, on 08/28/2008, -5/+2Do we lose geometry if people stop taking courses in ancient Greek? No, of course not. Any of a civilizations important contributions to technical, scientific, or medical fields (etc.) can be easily preserved in non-native languages. Of course, records of how to translate these languages will also persist, so in the unlikely event that anything is later discovered in these languages, it could easily be translated by linguistic professionals.

        Only in the fantasy world of left-wing academia does staunch preservation ancient cultural heritage outweigh the need for efficient global communication.
      • SRSco, on 08/28/2008, -4/+3@ LaughingMan89

        Whoah. Who said we aren't into global communication? Linguistics is a fascinating field. You don't have to be a left-wing academic to be interested in it. I'm a fairly politically moderate guy who doesn't even have a college degree and I love reading/studying linguistics. Having a desire to have ancient or minority languages preserved doesn't negatively impact efficient global communication. Get real.
      • EpicSelekta, on 08/28/2008, -2/+5A language that dies isn't really going to be a language that has exclusive information. Latin died, but when it died, people who knew early Arabic and German had already translated pretty much everything that mattered in Latin. Even dead languages that no one speaks can be interpreted: the ancient Maya left behind nothing except words carved into rock and a language the ancestrally was a cousin of Mayan language. There was no word key, yet linguistics experts still managed to find out what was said. Cultural identity remains even after people stop identifying with it.
    • greenroom628, on 08/28/2008, -2/+16it is important in the sense that it allows us to trace our evolution. in the course of human socio-evolution, language has always been a great marker of progress. two thousand years ago, latin was the great language, now english is more prevalently used, but we still recognize latin as one of the root languages of english. that's why its still recognized to this day (and somewhat used to this day; in science, law, medicine). its still important to recognize these languages, even if in a categorical sense, to understand the evolution of human language.
    • Yage2006, on 08/28/2008, -16/+13No in fact its not, The less languages the better.
    • failedpimp, on 08/28/2008, -0/+15Soon we will all speak Basic.
    • lis880, on 08/28/2008, -3/+1Nope not at all rats off to ya dying languages!!! Still,I wouldnt mind picking that clicking sound one up though.
    • Zippo, on 08/28/2008, -0/+2It's sad to see any part of a culture die. Languages are a key to our past and an incredibly important part of our history and culture.
      I just hope that all dying languages and dialects are properly recorded and documented and translated... so if it does indeed fade away into extinction, we can at least had record of it. Then it won't completely die.
  • ap1983, on 08/27/2008, -3/+11great article!
  • diggimator, on 08/27/2008, -8/+4The article says it wasn't until 2008 that Ainus were recognized as minorities in Japan. That is false.
    • Eisim, on 08/27/2008, -2/+16[citation needed]
      • diggimator, on 08/28/2008, -1/+2You mean for the article's claim? Because it doesn't make much sense for the author to claim they haven't been recognized as a minority. What does that even mean? Ainus have had a completely different language and culture that is obvious. Their people have been documented for centuries as a distinct and different group from the Yamato people.
      • DeathJux, on 08/28/2008, -1/+2You do understand that for anyone to lead any credence to your claim you need to supply some sort of source, right? Whether it's you or the article, unsubstantiated claims aren't very credible.
      • diggimator, on 08/28/2008, -0/+3Quick searches. Ainu recognized as a minority in a Wikipedia Japan article, 2003 http://ja.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=アイヌ&oldi ...
        Ainu recognized as a minority in an official Japanese document, 1988
        http://www.sangiin.go.jp/japanese/joho1/syuisyo/11 ...
    • feliks2, on 08/28/2008, -8/+5So what do most Japanese people have instead of Anuses?
    • LocalDocal, on 08/28/2008, -2/+4Actually, you're incorrect: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7437244.st ...

      Of course, if I'm reading the article correctly, the fact that the Ainu haven't been recognized until recently is due more to Japan's notorious penchant for denying things more than anything else.
      • diggimator, on 08/28/2008, -1/+3The article doesn't claim they weren't recognized as a minority.
      • LocalDocal, on 08/28/2008, -0/+0Diggimator,

        From the article: "Japan's parliament is to adopt a resolution that, for the first time, formally recognises the Ainu as "an indigenous people with a distinct language, religion and culture"."

        Additionally, here are some other articles about the same thing:
        http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.c ...
        http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/03/world/asia/03ain ...

        Lastly, if you head to the Wikipedia entry about the Ainu people, and look under the 'History' section, it will say the exact same thing (in fact, the citation is even the same article I originally posted). Now then, if you still refuse to simply admit that you were wrong before, that's fine, but I'm not going to continue arguing.
      • diggimator, on 08/28/2008, -0/+1minority != aborigine

        Minorities: African Americans, women, etc.

        Aborigines: Native Americans, Ainus, Australian Aborigines, etc.

        The specific wording used in the submitted article was a false statement, that's all. One of the new advancements this year is that Japan will be abiding by UN rules on aborigines.
    • GarryBarker, on 08/28/2008, -2/+1The japs are no better in treating the indigenous minority like the chinks are with the Tibetans. Like China they try to claim land that rightfully belongs to Taiwan.

      Free Tibet!
  • ADIDAS247, on 08/27/2008, -17/+52Why should I care? I was educated in the US which means I can barely speak English.
  • AxsToro, on 08/28/2008, -2/+2wow... I didnt even know there were that many..
  • bigsteve3OOO, on 08/28/2008, -5/+16soo them should bes speakn engish yo
  • cadmiumpaint, on 08/28/2008, -4/+61text messaging and the internet have made english an endangered language.
    • TheOther1, on 08/28/2008, -3/+4And Ebonics
    • Andrewbot, on 08/28/2008, -0/+2lol wut???

      I cannot stand the way people text, "its short-hand, its faster for me!" No, that's laziness.
    • xxgracefallenxx, on 08/28/2008, -0/+3plez to stop now. srsly. kthanx.
  • mweflen, on 08/28/2008, -10/+5What about English? Its no great suprise that when your trying to speak it, people don't understand what your saying. Its to bad, really. English is losing it's ability to communicate.
    • NathanielJ, on 08/28/2008, -9/+2"English is losing it's ability to communicate."

      *loosing
      *too
      • coolxal, on 08/28/2008, -1/+3I can't tell if you're being serious or not...
      • mweflen, on 08/28/2008, -1/+2Nathaniel - I can't believe I missed those... lose/loose is another peeve...
    • vinceislegend, on 08/28/2008, -3/+12What about English? IT'S no great suprise that when YOU'RE trying to speak it, people don't understand what YOU'RE saying. IT'S TOO bad, really. English is losing ITS ability to communicate.

      Corrections in caps. I didn't bother to correct your grammar, which is about as lacking.
    • mweflen, on 08/28/2008, -2/+6I guess in addition to English, the ability to detect irony is also endangered...
    • slurba, on 08/28/2008, -0/+1Languages change over time, for better or for worse. There is no real "correct" use of English, just proper English. Communication just means giving another person a message. If they get what you said, I wouldn't really call it it wrong, just not proper.
  • twoifbysee, on 08/28/2008, -0/+8one of the most interesting articles I've read in a long time, thank you
  • vinceislegend, on 08/28/2008, -1/+48Klingon.
    • MrFurious2k, on 08/28/2008, -0/+2Beat me to it. Good thing it's not on the list.
      • DforSpiD, on 08/28/2008, -0/+2Fictitious languages such as Klingon and Elvish are spoken by thousands of times more people than some of these languages...
    • IglooBurner, on 08/28/2008, -0/+0I think more people speaks Klingon than the top 100 most endangered languages' speaking population combined... just go to a ST convention...
    • s2ao, on 08/28/2008, -0/+1Na, Klingon is doing well...
      http://www.theonion.com/content/node/29426
  • DeathJux, on 08/28/2008, -0/+20It doesn't bother me very much if people stop speaking a language, and it "dies" that way, but I really hope we're documenting and preserving as many as possible that way.
    • Atsumori, on 08/28/2008, -0/+6I'm with you, it's sad if it goes dead, but forgotten is worse. The least we can do is recognize it.
    • folkish, on 08/28/2008, -0/+1A language is only relevant if its spoken in the community and passes on from one generation to the next. The story of that community (which is most accurately depicted in the language) is pretty much lost if its merely documented and only the occasional linguist learns it.
  • Bviper, on 08/28/2008, -9/+18Death is an essential part of progress, the sooner we have a unified language the sooner we have a unified world.
    • Kohaxx, on 08/28/2008, -2/+1"Mlorp Glorp Gorp."

      Damn Goobags!
    • natterca, on 08/28/2008, -0/+5Your statement is doubleplusgood.
    • ReedRichards, on 08/28/2008, -1/+0A unified language just as Southern English is unified with Midwestern English or Californian English is Unified with British English?

      Or maybe unified in a way that reflects pronunciations that are long gone like, for instance, English writing system?

      What is a unified language?

      How long can a language remain "unified"(when the evidence is that it varies and changes unstoppable along the time)?

      People that think that a "unified" world would be better, are only saying that the world should be unified "our way", because it is "the good way", "the way of the truth", or even worse, it's "God's way". In my town, we call those guys bigots, but in the rest of the world they are better known as fascists.
      • Roryking, on 08/28/2008, -1/+1You had me until you made it about religion and fascism
  • ThePerkins, on 08/28/2008, -5/+2Hatway boutaay igpay atinlay?
  • Coercion, on 08/28/2008, -1/+22Proper English didn't make the list? zing!
  • coolxal, on 08/28/2008, -10/+6If nobody speaks it, what's the point of preserving a dead language?
    • matero5009, on 08/28/2008, -2/+12like Latin....all it did was make my high school GPA go down and now i'm in a ***** college


      • TheDreadDiggerD, on 08/28/2008, -1/+8Don't blame Latin for your ineptitude.
  • ashwinmudigonda, on 08/28/2008, -1/+10I think this means more people understand the hieroglyphics on the pyramids than certain languages spoken by humans alive today. Sad. Languages are important as they divulge a host of clues about humans. It also gives an idea about the pace of evolution, especially of the human society.
  • Shiftgood, on 08/28/2008, -2/+16Did You Know?:

    English is the worlds largest and most expressive language on earth. It has TWICE as many words as the second largest.

    Cool huh?
    • JakeSN, on 08/28/2008, -14/+1That is cool, but if you don't mind me asking, how is it the most expensive? Is that based on how much it costs to teach proper grammar and spelling in school?
    • EpicSelekta, on 08/28/2008, -2/+12English is also the most confusing language on earth, with rules that don't apply to all words and words that obey no rules. It's like the Bush administration, except with words.
    • xxgracefallenxx, on 08/28/2008, -0/+2NERDS!!!!
    • chikuten, on 08/28/2008, -0/+3knowledge is power!
  • FUR10N, on 08/28/2008, -7/+8do we really need more than one language anyway?
    • legom7, on 08/28/2008, -0/+1You're absolutely right. But which language can be agreed upon to be the one everybody uses? Lojban?
    • Zippo, on 08/28/2008, -0/+1So, if the world decided tomorrow that everyone had to speak Chinese now, would you be ok with that? They've got the majority after all.
  • bemaniac, on 08/28/2008, -0/+18I took a Linguistics class last year from a professor who is friends with the last living Southeast Pomo speaker. With one living speaker, it is clearly more endangered than any of the languages on that list.
    • Skurt, on 08/28/2008, -0/+13@bemaniac


      Who does he speak to?
      • mvest20, on 08/28/2008, -0/+7That is a really good question...
      • byrdgang, on 08/28/2008, -0/+1No one, because all the people who spoke the language except him are dead.
    • Galaxylander, on 08/28/2008, -0/+3How do they know he's speaking Southeast Pomo if nobody can understand him?

      Eh?
      • byrdgang, on 08/28/2008, -0/+1Because the language has been documented from all or almost all linguistic angles (syntax, phonology, morphology, lexicon, etc.). You need to read scholarly writing on this to understand.
    • chilidbz, on 08/28/2008, -0/+6He's just making ***** up. I'm actually the last person to speak Ancient Duck.
  • schoffie7, on 08/28/2008, -1/+6It's a shame that some of these ancient languages are dying out. Different dialects are so interesting to listen to and the fact that they are slowly fading away is sad. Communication is such a huge part our existance and so losing these languages is like losing a piece of these people's culture. Even if hardly anybody speaks the language, isn't it worth trying to document this piece of history before it's gone forever?
    • EpicSelekta, on 08/28/2008, -2/+2If a language's culture is worth documenting, it was probably documented. Writing and importance go hand in hand. If a language dies out, it's because the language wasn't as good at expression of information. That's why Latin died... it didn't even have sentence structure!

      Or, in Latin rules: didn't structure even have sentence it.
      • noumuon, on 08/28/2008, -0/+1except the grammar in latin is still ridiculously structured. your example isn't even close.
  • KidSinister, on 08/28/2008, -3/+1why can't one of them be 1337-speak?
  • mogebier, on 08/28/2008, -2/+7So?
    It's called "Evolution". Or "That's the way the world works"
  • cartman005, on 08/28/2008, -2/+2I can speak most of these languages and am happy to teach anyone who wants to learn.
  • inyearstocome, on 08/28/2008, -2/+7As long as we can amass the knowledge of those cultures into spoken languages, this is a good thing. A unified language would be amazing.

    We can start by getting rid of all the spanish on US Legal documents and Bank Deposit Slips, or at LEAST make it in smaller text than the English. ;-)
    • SoullessPoet, on 08/28/2008, -0/+1Alternately, we can get rid of English and use Spanish instead.

      I agree that having a common language (as opposed to a unified one) is extremely useful in many situations. And in cases where that is necessary, people usually have a way of working it out. However, language embodies more than just the transmission of data. As the article states, "Each language expresses the history, culture, society and identity of the people who speak it, and each is a unique way of talking about the world." To force the richness of the world's languages into a unified standard tongue as a way to facilitate communication would be like reducing the great works of literature and poetry to CliffsNotes and saying that nothing is lost since the basic ideas have been conveyed.
  • akshin, on 08/28/2008, -2/+1what about pig latin?
  • anononon, on 08/28/2008, -5/+4Dammit, French isn't on the list.
    • TheDreadDiggerD, on 08/28/2008, -0/+4Je ne comprends pas!
      • bigsteve3OOO, on 08/28/2008, -2/+1les fracias sucks le bag comprende vous?
  • BHO4Prez, on 08/28/2008, -7/+3I think its a good thing for a languages to become extinct. The existence of different languages does nothing but separate people and makes society less efficient. If everyone in the world spoke English, the world would be a much better place. There would be no war and hunger and disease would be eliminated.
  • random12345, on 11/16/2008, -0/+10O-zone layer, whales, polar bears, rain forests....

    Not sure if I have enough room in my "things to save" left for obscure languages.
  • Clive, on 08/28/2008, -0/+1Save the endangered languages!
  • will9404, on 08/28/2008, -4/+2A lot of people can't speak decent English in Los Angeles, it doesn't seem like their very interested in learning English either. Nothing beats getting a stupid look from a FOB, its like "huh oh I don't understand".
    • videodroner, on 08/28/2008, -0/+4"...it doesn't seem like THEY'RE very...*
  • Rowwen, on 08/28/2008, -1/+0@harabeck

    To add to what SRSco said, Latin is a language that has evolved to many other languages. Italian, Spanish, French, Romanian, Portuguese, Catalan, and somewhat English. All having derived from Latin. Which is a reason Latin is studied.
  • DiggCommando, on 08/28/2008, -3/+1Although a unified language is more useful from a utilitarian perspective, each of these languages may potentially represent a way of looking at the world that dies with them. Our language is inextricably tied to our thoughts.

    "And the lord said, behold the people is one, and they have all one language. And this they begin to do, and now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down and there confound their language, that they may not understand one anothers speech"
  • WhoDoneIt, on 08/28/2008, -0/+1Half of the existing languages will be gone by 2050!

    Damn global warming, damn you!!!
  • darny, on 08/28/2008, -2/+111. French
  • d1sturbdepeace, on 08/28/2008, -5/+0Pretty soon, you'll be able to add English to your list of endangered languages in America.
    Comprende?
  • Rowwen, on 08/28/2008, -2/+0@LaughingMan
    Well obviously not of course.
    Ancient Greek has been translated successfully, and with records on how it was translated. We've translated it because many of the world felt the great need to do so. I mean, c'mon the Bible was originally written in Greek, and you don't need to be a Christian to think it's important.


    But the preservation of languages are important when there are things we have yet to find out. As it says in the article:
    Each language expresses the history, culture, society and identity of the people who speak it, and each is a unique way of talking about the world. The loss of any language is a loss to both the community who use it in their daily lives, and to humankind in general. The songs, stories, words, expressions and grammatical structures of languages developed over countless generations are part of the intangible heritage of all humanity.

    Now I don't think the example "rockrapdude" gave was appropriate, but I do think that languages should be preserved, even when we know eveything about the language and what it shows about its society.

    @Yage200
    I sincerely hope your not serious. What? Not enough space?
    • haxorjoe, on 08/28/2008, -0/+2Again, please use reply.
      • Rowwen, on 10/01/2008, -0/+0I didn't go down to the bottom of the page to do this. Digg just did some strange things once my message was so long it needed a scrollbar.
  • 0260, on 08/28/2008, -0/+3no C#?
    • 1longtime, on 08/28/2008, -0/+1ColdFusion?
    • Murdats, on 08/28/2008, -0/+2are you kidding? C# is a great language with many developers, and as an added bonus a heap of money in it.
  • DiseasedRodent, on 08/28/2008, -0/+4"2. N|u (also called Khomani)"

    Spoken by 10 elderly people. Who is the one that calls it Khomani?Somebody slap that guy around, it's N|u darnit!
  • Taiyoryu, on 08/28/2008, -0/+3Extinction is an integral part of the process of evolution whether it be living things or language. However it's important to preserve and archive a sample if not the entire language before its lost for the simple purpose of recording where we come from.
  • schrutefan, on 08/28/2008, -1/+12"Ket is the only Siberian language with a tone system where the pitch of the voice can give what sound like identical words quite different meanings. (Much like Chinese or Yoruba)"

    False. Chinese is not a spoken language.
    • InuX, on 08/28/2008, -0/+2logged in just to digg you up.
    • noumuon, on 08/28/2008, -0/+5since china has an official language, i would say it is. or let me guess... you only speak cantonese.. ;p
    • CRCulver, on 08/28/2008, -0/+2Except every language that uses the Han writing system also has tones, so it's a fair generalization.
  • macbookpromat, on 08/28/2008, -3/+1Who cares if some barely known variety of moon speak disappears, I honestly thought there would be known languages in there such as french or something.
  • r3negadeX, on 08/28/2008, -1/+6Visual Basic. And good riddance.
  • nexus6ca, on 08/28/2008, -0/+3Wow more people speak Klingon then alot of those languages
  • matero5009, on 08/28/2008, -1/+0you know that i have no idea what that word means right?


    so just go insult someone who gives a *****
  • mvest20, on 08/28/2008, -1/+3The fact that these languages are dying out isn't necessarily sad or bad for society. It is a nostalgic loss for intellectuals. But the nice thing is that between the global connectedness and knowledge that we have and the advance in communication, we can document these languages for future study and evaluation. For example, I worked with a professor in Texas who was documenting a language that was (and still is) dying out. (Actually, it was a dialect of German that has been mutated over time to include certain English elements.) We video and audio recorded several of the fifty or so remaining speakers, and archived each of the conversations online in order to preserve a good deal of this relatively new (within the last 150 years or so) and already dying language. While I will agree it is interesting to learn about these sorts of things, I got a lot more out of the cultural study of this small society than I did from the fact that the language won't be spoken anymore. How many languages have died out in the history of the world, and have we lost anything significant?
  • scoottie, on 08/28/2008, -2/+1Where's English? The Internet seems to be killing that one
  • wiirdo, on 08/28/2008, -1/+1Dugg for the silhouettes of the National Geographic boobies in the pic.
  • mbm985, on 08/28/2008, -0/+1isn't it possible also to make a new language?
  • xerigen, on 08/28/2008, -1/+4I SPEAK AMURICAN and if ya don't yer one of dem terrists
  • dingclancy, on 08/28/2008, -0/+1These endangered languages are all from small tribes that will eventually die out or assimilated. Still, they present a different view of how humans lived especially during prehistoric times. These languages have very different structures from these Indo-European languages (Hindu and Arabic and Latin have closer ties than we think), which means that they have a different way of thinking about the world and expressing themselves. The sad part is we are only appreciating them now that they are endangered. Before they are just monkey sounds to European colonists/American imperialists.
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