Top 10 Endangered Languages
source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/aug/27/endangered.languages
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- Moopak
- added this
Spoken by fewer than 20 people on the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean.
2. N|u (also called Khomani)
This is a Khoisan language spoken by fewer than 10 elderly people whose traditional lands are located in the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park in South Africa.
3. Ainu
The Ainu language is spoken by a small number of old people on the island of Hokkaido in the far north of Japan.
4. Thao
Sun Moon Lake of central Taiwan is the home of the Thao language, now spoken by a handful of old people while the remainder of the community speaks Taiwanese Chinese (Minnan).
5. Yuchi
Yuchi is spoken in Oklahoma, USA, by just five people all aged over 75. Yuchi is an isolate language (that is, it cannot be shown to be related to any other language spoken on earth).
6. Oro Win
The Oro Win live in western Rondonia State, Brazil, and were first contacted by outsiders in 1963 on the headwaters of the Pacaas Novos River.
7. Kusunda
The Kusunda are a former group of hunter-gatherers from western Nepal who have intermarried with their settled neighbours.
8. Ter Sami
This is the easternmost of the Saami group of languages (formerly called Lapp, a derogatory term), located on the Kola Peninsula in Russia.
9. Guugu Yimidhirr
Guugu Yimidhirr is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken at Hopevale near Cooktown in northern Queensland by around 200 people.
10. Ket
Ket is the last surviving member of a family of languages spoken along the Yenesei River in eastern Siberia.
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- News and Politics, Culture, Green, Earth and Science, 19 more
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kinolina
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Adding to a likely crowded top 10-plus list of languages is the Itelmen language spoken on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russia. Writer Elizabeth Omara-Otunnu's posted this article on the University of Connecticut's site about Linguistics Professor Jonathan Bobaljik's research on the endangered Itelmen language.
The study of languages, and news and research about endangered languages, is an important one. What languages will be gone in 50 years as the world becomes more fully globalized?
- 3 years ago
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kinolina
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reneelikeshugs
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They should write books. In their languages. So we can later decipher them. And feel smart. Like we're doing with the Mayan and Aztec and various other former civilizations.
- 3 years ago
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reneelikeshugs
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melelana
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We're slowly seeing the effect of conquest. Hopefully people will begin to see the importance of preserving culture.
- 3 years ago
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melelana
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ghost2047
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Not just languages, dialects and accents are fading away also. Hundreds of variations of English, for example that have eroded to nothing or are kept alive by small, usually elderly groups of people or been reduced to a few key phases in that regions slang.
- 3 years ago
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ghost2047
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synclaire
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It's amazing to think about how many languages have come forth and then died over human history. We are lucky to be able to preserve these languages in recordings even though they are becoming extinct. I wonder how many new languages are being formed now with globalization and technology creating new words or brining words from other languages into the common vernacular.
- 3 years ago
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synclaire
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gracesteban
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I'm quite interested to know how they gauge the "endangered languages". What's the criteria. I'm sure there are more languages in Africa and some parts of Asia that are extinct as well.
Thank you for the article though, it's informative : )
- 3 years ago
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gracesteban
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swa11ow
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gracesteban:
There are literally hundreds if not thousands of extinct languages that we know about. (And even more that we don't know anything about.) Take your pick from the above Wikipedia list.
Languages become endangered when the older people of the group no longer teach them to the younger people of the group. They become extinct as the last of the old speakers die.
With modern recording equipment and help from the old people explaining the grammar and vocabulary, the languages can only be preserved and studied like an artifact in a museum.
- 3 years ago
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swa11ow
