“On every inhabited continent, languages keep falling silent. New replacements are rare. Linguists believe that about six thousand languages still low into human ears: the exact total is a matter of debate. By some estimates, a maximum of three thousand are likely to be heard at the century’s end, and fewer than 600 of those appear secure. Within our children’s lifetimes, thousands of human languages seem fated to dwindle away.”

Mark Abley in Spoken Here