279 Languages May Disappear By 2100

By 2100, the world could lose 279 languages, as reported by Yury Koryakov, a senior researcher at the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, speaking to RIA Novosti.

According to linguists’ calculations, 88 languages have already disappeared in the first quarter of the 21st century. Among them are the language of the north-western Papuans of Indonesia, the Aleut dialect of the Bering Island Aleuts, and the Plains Apache language.

Koryakov added that in the 21st century, the average rate of language extinction has been nearly 40 languages every ten years. In total, 256 languages disappeared during the 20th century.