The United Nations estimates that approximately 6,500 languages are spoken in the world today. But a lot of these languages are dying and disappearing fast. By the end of this century, many linguists estimate that over half of those 6,500 languages will be gone.

The study of dying languages is late in coming, and no one knows for sure how many languages exist that have yet to be heard. After all, 95% of the world’s languages are spoken by only 5% of the population. So how do we find these disappearing languages? And how can we try to preserve them?

Why are languages endangered?

Over the past fifty years, technology has allowed people to communicate across thousands of miles at the push of a button or a click of the mouse. These developments have major advantages — but have resulted in the disappearance of hundreds of languages.

As international business becomes more globalized, social and economic pressures drive once-isolated communities to assimilate and adopt the popular languages of the region, particularly in Asia and the Pacific.

The influence of the media, as well as standardized language teaching in schools, also contribute to the host of dying languages. As the older generation passes away, the youth are left without the language skills of their ancestors.

How can we save dying languages?

As the problem of dying languages becomes increasingly critical, organizations are popping up around the world to preserving disappearing dialects.

The World Oral Literature Project, established in 2009 by Mark Turin of University of Cambridge’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, is one such organization dedicated to recording dying languages from Siberia to Bolivia.

The project aims to create a library of audio and video material from communities around the world, documenting their oral traditions and preserving the dying language for future generations.

Team members travel to remote communities and record the local tales, songs, rituals and histories with voice recorders and video cameras. Back in Cambridge, they receive DVDs from isolated language pockets around the world, from people wanting to tell their stories and share their language.

The materials are not only for posterity — the tapes are also useful as teaching materials within the communities themselves, giving local children learning tools they’ve never had access to before.

Similar projects to record and preserve dying languages include National Geographic’s Enduring Voices and the Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project.

What is oral literature?

It might sound like an oxymoron, but oral literature has become the standard term for the traditional cultural material passed down through word of mouth.

Songs, poems, stories, recitations, chants, stories, ritual texts, epics, riddles, music, folk tales, creation myths, proverbs, histories and biographies all contribute to the richness of a culture — and help a language develop and thrive.

That makes preserving a language an even more important cause. In doing so, these organizations are also preserving the history and memory of a culture.