The dying languages of the world

The dying languages of the world
The dying languages of the world

The dying languages of the world

WBEZ brings you fact-based news and information. Sign up for our newsletters to stay up to date on the stories that matter.
There is a chance that as many as 50 percent of the world’s languages will disappear by the end of this century. The data is imperfect but by some estimates, we lose a language about every four months. The internet and globalization are part of the reason that languages are dying out. At times political activism and legislation have helped to rescue a language on the brink. New Yorker staff writer Judith Thurman examines efforts to save dying languages in her piece A Loss for Words, which appears in this week’s edition of the New Yorker. She joins us to talk about some of the efforts. PHOTO: (Lee Stephens/Flickr)