Language Dieing

[Mike_Cahill at SIL.ORG]

Thanks for the link to the article on the dying Eyak language.

I must take issue with one statement attributed to Michael Krauss, though,
that "only 500 to 600 languages are spoken by at least two generations,
making them relatively safe from extinction." I don't know if he actually
said that or not, or what the source of this figure might be. But I know we
in SIL can document easily at least twice that number from the languages we
are working in, and I suspect the true number is closer to 3,000-4000 at a
minimum.

Does anyone else have any real data on this point?

Mike

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Dr. Michael Cahill
International Linguistics Coordinator, SIL International
7500 W. Camp Wisdom Rd.
Dallas, TX 75236
USA

email: mike_cahill at sil.org
phone: 972-708-7328
fax: 972-708-7328
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