TORONTO – Google’s Endangered Languages Project aims to document, preserve and teach half of the world’s 7,000 languages that are at the risk of being extinct. With this in mind, Global News looks at languages by the numbers.
6,000 – number of languages in the world, according to UNESCO’s (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) World Atlas of Endangered Languages.
7,000 – approximate number of languages in the world, according to Google’s Endangered Languages Project site.
43 – per cent of 6,000 languages spoken in the world are estimated to be extinct, according to UNESCO.
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90 – per cent of languages that scientists predict will be extinct in 100 years, according to Google’s Endangered Languages Project.
700 – number of people in the world who speak Seri, an ancient Mexican dialect, according to a report by Catalogue of Endangered Languages (ELCat) produced at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa.
60 – per cent of First Nations’ languages in Canada are spoken in British Columbia, according to a report by the First Peoples’ Heritage, Language and Culture Council (FPCC).
312 – number of North American native languages, according to a report by ELCat. These languages are classified in 58 units of classification: (language families and isolates – languages with known relatives that is with only one member).
500 – number of first language speakers of Maliseet-Passamaquoddy, according to ELCat. It’s an Eastern Algonquian language spoken in the St. Croix and St. John River valleys along the border between the state of Maine and New Brunswick.
53 – number of communities in B.C. that have recordings of their language, according to FPCC.
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