Half of World's Languages Could Be Extinct by 2100

An Irish proverb advises that it is often wise for one to hold his tongue. An té is ciúine is é is buaine, or "he who is silent is the stronger." But that ancestral wisdom isn't the best policy when the very language it comes from is threatened.

The Irish language, Gaelic, is one of more than 40 percent of the world's 6,000 spoken languages that are endangered, according to UNESCO. Most of the endangered languages have less than 10,000 speakers remaining.

"With every language that dies we lose an enormous cultural heritage," write the founders of the Endangered Languages Project, a global collaboration of the linguistic community aimed at strengthening endangered languages. "The understanding of how humans relate to the world around us; scientific, medical and botanical knowledge; and most importantly, we lose the expression of communities' humor, love and life. In short, we lose the testimony of centuries of life."

Thanks to Duolingo, a language-learning app, more than 3 million people are studying Gaelic, a language that currently has only 100,000 speakers. Last year, Ireland's President Michael Higgins invited Duolingo employees to his home to recognize them for their help in reviving the language, or at least interest in it.

For most of the world's other languages, however, the outlook isn't as bright. Linguists estimate that a language dies about every four months and that half could be extinct by 2100. Already, about 80 percent of the world's people speak about 1 percent of the world's languages.

The Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages has identified about 20 " language hotspots," or regions where languages are particularly imperiled. Along with endangerment, the nonprofit research organization factors in the diversity of language origins in the area and levels of prior documentation. Facing particularly severe threats are the languages of central South America, near Peru and Bolivia, the western edge of Canada and northern Australia, as well as Siberia.

A playlist from the Smithsonian Institution's record label creates a time capsule of the songs and sounds of endangered languages. From the throaty rhythms of Tuvan from south-central Siberia in Russia to the melodic congruity of Bosavi from Papua New Guinea, each selection captures the unique ways humans have evolved to describe and interact with the world in which they live.

Deidre McPhillips is a data reporter at U.S. News. You can find her on Twitter or email her at dmcphillips@usnews.com.