Nobody knows the exact number of existing languages. But as experts conduct surveys and analyses one thing becomes apparent; three thousand or more languages face extinction in the next thirty years.
Experts estimate there are between six and seven thousand living languages today. These languages evolve over time to reflect changes in the circumstances and culture of the speakers. The English we speak to day isn't the same English spoken one hundred years ago. We've gained some words, and we've lost some words. How many then knew what it meant to google something? How many today know what it means to be pulchritudinous?
In this evolution of languages perhaps it is survival of the fittest. Some languages change over time, some fade away, and some are annihilated. As Dr. K. David Harrison told The New York Times, most languages face extinction at a rate that exceeds that of birds, mammals, fish and plants.
The decline in the number of spoken languages could be regarded as a good thing, bringing us closer to global unity and bridging communication gaps. Having a common tongue worldwide offers many possibilities, not the least of which would be greater economic stability.
But it also has its downfalls. Each language contains unique cultural identities and stories. Words exist in every language language that are unique. These could be lost forever.
Dr. Gregory D. S. Anderson came across the last speaker of Amurdag, a language in the Northern Australia that had been declared extinct, during a long-term project to identify and record endangered languages. “This is probably one language that cannot be brought back, but at least we made a record of it,” Dr. Anderson told The New York Times, noting that the Aborigine who spoke it strained to recall words he had heard from his father, now dead.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/science/19language.html
http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/enduring-voices/
