Should Dying Languages Be Saved?
Of the 6,000 languages spoken worldwide, the Foundation for Endangered Languages estimates that between 500 and 1,000 are spoken by only a handful of people. Every year the world loses around 25 languages. This is known as language death.
It was announced earlier this year that the Bo tribe has become extinct and its language has died out after its last speaker, a 85-year-old man who had survived the December 2004 tsunami, passed away in the Indian Andaman islands.
Language experts gathered at a UK university to discuss what to do about dying languages, and focused on indigenous languages in Ireland, Australia, Spain and China.