Endangered Languages Report Identifies the Most At-Risk Languages

There are thousands of languages around the world that are at risk of extinction. A team at Preply has gathered extensive data from the Endangered Languages Report, highlighting the scope of this issue. According to the data, Australia has the highest number of critically endangered languages, totaling 133. The Pacific region features the highest number of endangered languages, with 250, while Africa has the most threatened languages, numbering 217.

The report provides several specific examples. For instance, Lakota is classified as an endangered language, with only 2,000 speakers remaining. Welsh, on the other hand, has 562,000 speakers, making it a vulnerable language. French is widely spoken around the world; however, the Louisiana French dialect is endangered, with only 130,000 speakers remaining.

Globalization and economic pressures on working-age speakers contribute to the decline of these languages, as do historical assimilation programs in the United States and Canada, which led to the loss of many Indigenous languages.