British languages 'dying': an expert writes (fwd link)

[Phillip E Cash Cash]

British languages 'dying': an expert writes

Thursday 09 December 2010
UK

There are comprehensive records for only a tiny proportion of the
languages spoken in the world today.

While scholars around the globe are attempting to document and
preserve the diversity of human linguistic expressions, including here
at Cambridge, more than 2,400 of these speech forms are endangered and
will likely vanish without trace by the end of this century.

A sobering statistic: the Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger
released by UNESCO in early 2009 claims that more than 2,400 of the
over 6,500 languages spoken around the globe today are in danger of
disappearing. These vanishing voices, more than a third of the world’s
total living languages, can be ranked on a sliding scale from
vulnerable to extinct. Many will cease to be used as communicative
vernaculars in the next generation of speakers.

Access full article below:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/8190445/Endangered-Languages-and-Cultures-commentary.html