The majority of the world’s languages is spoken by about 6 percent of the global population and will be extinct by the next century, linguists say.
Linguists participating in the
Language Empires in Comparative Perspective conference held in Germany claimed that about 90 percent of world’s languages were to become extinct by the next century.
About 95 percent of the world's languages are spoken by only about 6 percent of the global population, they said.
Experts believe the whole structure of language is in crisis, in part because of the spread of the Internet, and that language will completely revamp itself in the coming years.
Statistics show that Chinese Mandarin is the language with the most native speakers of about 900 millions.
Spanish comes next with more than 400 million native speakers, followed by English, which has about 300 million native speakers.
Linguists say many dialects are disappearing in the wake of a more globalised economy and education system.
“The majority of threatened languages are spoken by isolated indigenous groups, and language barrier prevents absorption of their groups into larger society groups which often leave them to be affected by the worse economic conditions compared to their neighbors that speak the majority language,” says renowned linguist John McWhorter.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) had earlier reported that half of all modern languages would "probably vanish" by the end of the century.
There are more than 7,000 languages currently spoken in the world, many of which are not recorded nor have a written form.
FGP/TE
