Worldwide there are approximately 7000 languages spoken today. Within around seven billion
people in the world, this could mean that each language is spoken by 100,000 people.
However, some languages are used much more than others. Half of the world speaks just a
small number of languages, with the top five being Mandarin, Spanish, Hindi, English, and
Arabic. Together these languages account for just under two billion people in the world .
With so many people speaking so few languages, many others are under threat of diappearing
. Some estimates suggest that between 50% to 90% of languages will no longer exist by the
year 2100. Can and should something be done to stop the death of these languages ?
The distribution of language diversity varies greatly across the world. For example, there
are just over 200 languages spoken in Europe, but around 2000 in Asia. Some places have an
especially high range of local languages, For example, Papua New Guinea is one of the most
linguistically diverse counrties in the world, with over 800 languages. The problem occurs
when fever and fever people speak a language. In North America, for example, there are
over 150 languages. However, around half of these are spoken by only a small number of
people. In fact, around 25% of the world's languages are in a similiar situation. Some
argue that languages are disapppearing as fact as many species of animal. Languages,
though, unlike animals, are not dependent on surviving in a particular environment, so why
are so many disappearing?
Some languages die and others become widely used for a variety of reasons, Some are
historical and relate to when a samll number of nations and their languages spread to
different parts of the world. Some languages faced discrimination and were even banned.
Others were still used, but because powerful groups preferred a different language, they
became less common. Once a language achives a superior position in society, because it is
either enforced through law, or has a special status in education, it makes it hard for
other languages to survive. However, historically and even today, argubaly the main reason
for the death of a language is commerce.