Languages in Danger: How a Language Falls Silent

Of roughly 7,000 languages spoken today, linguists judge close to 40% to be endangered, while half of humanity speaks one of only about two dozen. Languages rarely vanish because they fail at being languages — every one of them is a complete, expressive system. They fall silent because school policy, land loss, missions, markets, and outright punishment make speaking them costly, until parents stop passing them on. Joshua Fishman called that slow trade language shift; Nancy Dorian, working with speakers of East Sutherland Gaelic, called the moment it accelerates the tip. Move along the timeline below to watch a language lose its ground one setting at a time, then follow six real languages — several of them turning the curve back around.