The Tower of Babel - Is It Melting Too?
The extinction rate of various species of birds and other mammals, amphibians and reptiles (sadly not the cockroach, though) is well documented. The rate that various languages are disappearing is less well known. Somehow over the centuries we have kept alive the sounds of Greek and Latin. And there are still some today who could converse with Chaucer, if he happened upon the Enterprise's holodeck. Yet dozens of Native American languages are already lost to history. Same with languages of nomadic peoples of Central Asia and over large swatches of Africa.
This is the startling reality that is presented on National Geographic's' Enduring Voices site:
Every 14 days a language dies. By 2100, more than half of the more than 7,000 languages spoken on Earth--many of them never yet recorded--will likely disappear, taking with them a wealth of knowledge about history, culture, the natural environment, and how the human brain works.
The interactive map of "language hotspots" is jaw dropping as well.