Don ’t take language for granted (fwd link)

[James Crippen]

On Feb 18, 2008 3:35 AM, jess tauber <phonosemantics at earthlink.net> wrote:
> I wonder though if such things take on lives of their own, like how
> many words there are for snow, or how much of our brain we use. Party
> gibberish. Plus the propensity to exaggerate high or low depending on
> social context, political orientation, etc. Not everyone out there is
> motivated by the need for precision or accuracy. They have other fish to
> fry.

Actually, I think this is an error from confusing different numbers.
It seems like an inflated form of the usual "there are 5000 to 6000
languages in the world today" mixed with "90% of the world's languages
will die in this century". The two were just combined through
inattention or journalistic incompetence or what have you.

James