Issue 473 of New Internationalist

Reader-owned global journalism

June 2014

Endangered languages

The world’s 7,000 languages are facing a decline more rapid than, and potentially as damaging as, the planet’s endangered species. With the last speakers of up to half of the world’s languages already alive today, linguists fear that within two centuries we could all be speaking one global tongue. Yet language matters more than you might think. The languages we speak shape who we are and how we see the world, and are a conduit for and repository of our culture, traditions and faith.

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