Let’s dive deeper into the numbers and facts. There are about 7,000 languages spoken today. However, in 2022, the Endangered Languages Project (ELP) identified 2,450 of these as threatened. The area with the highest number of endangered languages is Oceania, which includes islands to the east and north of Australia, with 733 endangered languages. In Europe, 148 languages were listed as threatened in 2022. The forecasts do not look good. Scientists warn that by the end of the century only 50% of the currently 7,000 spoken languages will survive. 

The already mentioned organization ELP, documents languages and also fights for their protection and recognition. As mentioned above, the ELP is a website that aims to inform and show the current state of information and research on endangered languages. It’s a collaborative space where you can inform yourself and also share your knowledge about languages. This could be stories, songs in the specific language, or also vocabulary. 

Maps are an important tool for documentation. They present an overview of the endangered languages in the world or in certain areas. There are maps of different levels of complexity. Static maps are simple and there is little effort needed to create them. Dynamic or multimedia maps are those which are more complex. These maps are digital and provide a lot of information. You can click on specific parts and learn about the number of people speaking it, the history and find links to other websites about the language. The map that you can find on the ELP website is a multimedia map which offers a wealth of information in the form of audio, video and facts given.

To get a better sense of what ELP does, you can watch the provided video. Take some headphones and watch it.