Unesco - Atlas of the Worlds Languages in Danger of Disappearing

Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger of Disappearing

U N E S C O P U B L I S H I N G

Editor: Stephen A. Wurm

Cartographer: Ian Heyward

UNESCO wishes to acknowledge the assistance of the JapaneseMinistry of Foreign Affairs, through the UNESCO/Japan TrustFund for the Preservation of the Intangible Cultural Heritage,in the publication of this Atlas. The Organization alsoexpresses its gratitude to the Department of Linguistics of theAustralian National University, Canberra, for its invaluablesupport to this undertaking.

The authors are responsible for the choice and thepresentation of the facts contained in this book and for theopinions expressed therein, which are not necessarily those ofUNESCO and do not commit the Organization. Thedesignations employed and the presentation of materialthroughout this publication do not imply the expression ofany opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO concerning thelegal status of any country, territory, city or area or of itsauthorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers orboundaries.

Published in 2001 by the United Nations Educational,Scientific and Cultural Organization,7 place de Fontenoy, 75352 Paris 07 SPTypeset by Susanne Almeida-KleinISBN 92-3-103798-6© UNESCO 1996, 2001(ISBN first edition: 92-3-103255-0 )

In contrast to the first edition, the present edition has five parts:(1) an introduction detailing developments in the study of endan-gered languages since 1996; (2) a description of the phenomenonof language endangerment and the death of languages; (3) a shortreport on efforts undertaken by the scientific community, in partin co-operation with UNESCO, to describe and record endangeredlanguages; (4) a fairly detailed overview of language endanger-ment and death in all major parts of the world; and (5) a smallatlas of fourteen maps, some of which are new, and others ofwhich have been revised, updated and expanded from the mapsthat appeared in the first edition.

The period between the publication of the first edition of this Atlas(1996) and this second edition has been characterized by anunprecedented expansion in the study of languages in danger ofdisappearing in many places. This has, in part, been due to theappearance of a very popular, easily accessible Atlas addressed tothe educated layman and of course to linguists. Its popularity inmany parts of the world led to wide, unexpected media interestwith press, telephone, radio and television interviews that werebroadcast widely. Interested in supporting the study of languagesin danger of disappearing since 1992, the UNESCO Sector forCulture welcomed an approach by a sister agency, the Inter-national Council of Philosophy and Humanistic Studies (CIPSH),and agreed to provide funds. It also backed the publication of

Preface and introduction to the second edition

relevant sources of information on languages in danger of disap-pearing, including the first edition of the present Atlas and amonumental three-volume publication on contact languages in thePacific, Asia, and the Americas, many of which are under threat(Wurm, Mühlhäusler and Tryon, 1996). This essential activity isnow gradually being taken in hand by other world and regionalorganizations interested in the study and maintenance of minorityand other languages in danger of disappearing. These include thePermanent International Committee of Linguists (CIPL) and theUNESCO/Japan Trust Fund for the Preservation of the IntangibleCultural Heritage, which in 2000 made available five short-termgrants for the immediate study of and work on seriously endan-gered languages in various parts of the world. The work wascarried out in the context of a contract between the IntangibleHeritage Section of UNESCO and CIPL; the Linguistic Circle ofCopenhagen; the Volkswagen Stiftung in Germany, which gave fivesubstantial grants for the purpose in 2000; the Foundation forEndangered Languages in Britain, which has been giving grants forsuch work in recent years; and the significant new Languages ofthe Pacific Rim project directed from Kyoto, Japan, among others.All concerned are fully aware of the fact that languages, in theirgreat diversity, are the most important part of the intangibleculture of humanity, each language reflecting as it does differentthought patterns and philosophies. With each vanishing language,an irreplaceable element of our complete understanding of humanthought in its multiform variations is lost for ever.

Since 1997 an increasing number of research projects and studiesof individual languages in danger of disappearing have beenundertaken with a view to their maintenance or at least to the

preservation of knowledge of them for posterity. Conferences,symposia and other meetings of experts have taken place in manyparts of the world, dealing with the subject of language endanger-ment and extinction, and the study, maintenance and reinvigora-tion of languages in danger of disappearing. Furthermore, therevival of recently or even long extinct languages is becoming atopical issue in many parts of the world, with the descendants ofthe last speakers clamouring for materials on their ancestrallanguages in order to gain an insight into how they sounded andfunctioned, and to relearn them at least in part so that they canuse words and phrases as symbols of their reawakened ethnic iden-tity. For instance, in Australia, several dying or extinct languageshave now been revived and already have several dozen speakers,with more and more members of the respective ethnic communitieslearning their ancestral tongues.

Recent conferences and symposia on language endangerment andthe maintenance and reinvigoration of threatened languages havein a short space of time led to the publication of substantialvolumes by major international houses. These convey their find-ings to the public, be they specialists or interested members of theeducated general public concerned about the disappearance oflanguages and the consequent loss of the most precious part ofhumankind’s non-material culture. Mention may be made of aconference held at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia(1999) on the subject of language endangerment and mainte-nance, the conclusions of which were published by Curzon Press in2001. A major symposium on seriously endangered and moribundlanguages everywhere took place near Bonn, Germany (February2000). It was attended by leading experts from all parts of the

world, and its findings published under the title Language DiversityEndangered (Brenziger, 2001). In October 2000, a meeting ofexperts on threatened pidgin and creole languages took place inManila, Philippines, the results of which were published there. InNovember 2000, a major Japanese research project for the long-term study of threatened languages of the entire Pacific Rim areawas launched at a symposium in Kyoto, Japan, at which leadingworld experts on language endangerment gave lectures followedby discussions, the results of which are being published there.

In addition to the ever more frequent conference and symposiumactivities on language endangerment, and the publication of theirconclusions in book form, a number of monumental publicationson threatened languages have appeared or will shortly appear,including a three-volume Atlas of Languages of InterculturalCommunication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas (Wurm,Mühlhäusler and Tryon, 1996). Another major publication is theEncyclopedia of the Endangered Languages of the World, edited byMoseley (forthcoming). Other major atlases of threatenedlanguages in certain parts of the world are in advanced prepara-tion, including the Atlas of Endangered Languages in Latin Americaand Threatened Languages of the Pacific and Australia, both editedby S. A. Wurm, and similar atlases of the threatened languages ofSouth-East Asia and Africa to follow.

A further important event in the study of, and information on,language endangerment and individual threatened languages isthe recent inclusion of a specific section on the subject in thedistinguished Linguistic Bibliography published annually by CIPLand giving bibliographic information on over 20,000 linguistic

publications from all over the world. The inclusion of this sectiongreatly facilitates the task of linguists, scholars and other partiesin keeping abreast of publishing activity in regard to languageendangerment and threatened languages in the world. Many rele-vant publications appear here and there in obscure journals andare difficult for scholars to trace. A conference to launch thisinitiative was held in November 2000 at the Royal National Libraryof the Netherlands in The Hague, and was attended by leadinglinguists and bibliographers.

In another new development, serial and periodic publications onindividual threatened languages and language endangerment ingeneral have begun to appear. These include Materials onEndangered Languages in the Indo-Pacific, being issues of the morethan 500-volume Pacific Linguistics series issued by theDepartment of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and AsianStudies, Australian National University, Canberra. The first volumeis devoted to endangered languages in Papua New Guinea, whileothers on languages in West Papua (Irian Jaya) and the Himalayasregion are in preparation. Mouton de Gruyter Publishers plan tostart a Journal of Language Endangerment in 2001.

Such unprecedented activity and growing interest in the field oflanguage endangerment and threatened languages would havebeen unthinkable a decade ago. Now, however, they are expectedto increase and gather strength. It is hoped that this updated andenlarged edition of the Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger ofDisappearing will contribute to this development.

S. A. W., 2001

The phenomenon of the death of languages has been known for avery long time. Some languages have disappeared without leavingany trace. Others jealously guard their own secrets because no onehas succeeded in deciphering them. Finally, there are those whichhave evolved and given birth to new languages. We know that, likeany living thing, a language placed in a specific context blossomsor fades away and dies.

With the upsurge in means of communication, our own periodseems to have created more situations of conflict between thelanguages of the world than ever before, by the same tokencausing more and more languages to disappear at an acceleratingpace. Although the phenomenon of the disappearance oflanguages is well known, its systematic study at world level is veryrecent, and the task of describing and recording languages beforethey disappear is only just beginning.

This study pursues three aims which are set out in three chapters.The first chapter gives a brief description of the phenomenon ofthe death of languages. The second part reports on the effortsundertaken by the scientific community, in part in co-operationwith UNESCO, to describe, record and introduce threatenedlanguages into the data bank. The last part goes on to draw up anatlas of a selection of the very many threatened languages of theworld that have been identified in the present state of research.This overview will enable researchers all over the world to fill inthis outline as their studies progress.

Professor Stephen A. WurmResearch School of Pacific and Asian Studies

The Australian National UniversityCanberra, Australia

Preface to the first edition (1996)


7

Preface and introduction to the second edition

Preface to the first edition (1996)

International collaboration in the field

Endangered languages and language disappearance

History and languages

CIPL, CIPSH, UNESCO, and languages in danger

Remarks on the present Atlas

EurasiaEurope Siberia Caucasus

AsiaChina Himalayan Chain Indian subcontinent Central Asia: Pamir areaSouth-East Asia

Greater Pacific AreJapanTaiwan Philippines Malaysia Indonesia Papua New GuineaSolomon Islands (including the Santa Cruz Archipelago)Vanuatu New Caledonia and Loyalty IslandsFiji and RotumaMicronesia PolynesiaAustralia

Africa

AmericaArctic North America EastArctic North America WestCanadaUnited StatesMexicoCentral and South AmericaSelect bibliog

Maps��

raphy

Index

Contents

International collaboration in the field

In the past few years, there has been a surge of interest in andwork on the many languages throughout the world that are indanger of disappearing. UNESCO has taken an interest in them,and in their study and maintenance. The International Council forPhilosophy and Humanistic Studies (CIPSH), a non-governmentalorganization that works with UNESCO, and the PermanentInternational Committee of Linguists (CIPL), have both been veryactive in this field, with a growing number of linguists and rele-vant institutions in the world turning their attention to theincreasing problem of languages that are in danger of disap-pearing. In this undertaking, it is heartening to see that a growingnumber of experts and others from regions where languages are indanger of disappearing, themselves sometimes speakers of thesevery languages, are entering dedicating their own work to thestudy and maintenance of dying languages.

The following, non-exhaustivelist, gives the names of many indi-viduals working in this field. Reginald Amenoo (Ghana andZimbabwe), Ayo Bamgbose (Nigeria), Victor Atknine (Siberia[Khakas]), Nils Helander (Norway [Saami]), Kirikae Hideo (Japan[Ainu]), G. N. Kurilov (Yakutia, Siberia [Yukagir]), Dob (China[Mongol]), Suwilai Premsirat (South-East Asia [Thai]), Otto Nekitel(Papua New Guinea), Wangkanyi Ngurra Tjurta (Australia), EdnaAhgeak MacLean (Alaska [Inupiaq Eskimo]), Marie-Claude Mattéi-Muller (Venezuela), Jon Landaburu (Colombia), and many others,


9among them Aryon Rodrigues (Brazil), Wang Jun (China), MichaelKrauss (Alaska), Mei Lee-Smith (Australia, China), Juha Janhunen(Finland, Siberia, China), Tapani Salminen (Finland, Siberia), Heinv. d. Voort (Netherlands, Arctic America, Brazil), Peter Bakker(Netherlands, Denmark, Canada, Alaska), Willem Adelaar(Netherlands, South America), Matthias Brenzinger (Germany,Africa), Bernd Heine (Germany, Africa), David Bradley (Australia,China, South-East Asia), Stephen Wurm (Australia, the Pacific,Central Asia, Siberia, South America), Beatriz Garza Cuarm Adelaar(Netherlands, South America), Matthias Brenzinger (Germany,Africa), Bernd Heine (Germany, Africa), David Bradley (Australia,China, South-East Asnd North Africa), Bruce Connell (England,Central Africa), Barbara Grimes (United States, general), Georgevan Driem (Netherlands, North and South Asia), Colette Grinewald(United States, Central America), Olga Kazakevitch (Russia,Siberia), Aleksandr E. Kibrik (Russia, Siberia), Denny Moore(Brazil, Lowland South America), Jonathan Owens (England, theMiddle East), Akira Yamamoto (United States, North America),Mahendra K. Verma (England, India), Tasaku Tsunoda (Japan,Australia), Kazuto Matsumura (Japan [Finno-Ugrian]), OsamuSakiyama (Japan, Pacific Rim), Ulrike Mosel (Germany, Polynesia),Hans-Jürgen Sasse (Germany, Africa), Nicholas Ostler (England,Foundation for Endangered Languages), Osahito Miyoka (Japan,

Pacific Rim), Alexandra Aikhenvald (Australia, Lowland SouthAmerica, Siberia), Robert W. Dixon (Australia), Peter Mühlhäusler(Australia [Pidgin and Creole languages]), Maya Bradley(Australia, South-East Asia and China), Stephen Morey (Australia[Tai languages]), Christina Eira (Australia [Hmong]), John Bowden(Australia, Eastern Indonesia), John Hajek (Australia, EasternIndonesia), Peter Austin (Australia), Luise Hercus (Australia),Barry J. Blake (Australia), Gavan Breen (Australia), ThomasDutton (Australia, Papua New Guinea), C. L. Voorhoeve(Netherlands [West Papua, Halmahera]), Nikolaus P. Himmelmann(Germany [Sulawesi]), William McGregor (Australia), Otto Nekitel(Papua New Guinea), Ger P. Reesinck (Netherlands [Papuanlanguages]), Malcolm Ross (Australia, South Western Pacific), WimA. L. Stockhof (Netherlands [Papuan languages of Timor area]),Nicholas Thieberger (Australia), Alexander Adelaar (Australia,Indonesia), Mark Donohue (Australia, West Papua), Charles Grimes(Australia, Eastern Indonesia), Paul Jen-Kuei Li (Taiwan), EvaLindström (Sweden [East Papuan]), Theodorus Purba (WestPapua), Victor Golla (United States, North America), Mily Crevels(Netherlands, South America), Yolanda Lastra (United States,Mexico), Ofelia Zepeda (United States), Jane Hill (United States),Doris Bartholomew (United States, Mexico), Gerrit Dimmendaal(Netherlands, Africa, Middle East), and hundreds more.

Endangered languages and languagedisappearance

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According to our estimate there are about 6,000 languages spokenin the world today, most of them in several dialects. We know ofmany languages that are no longer spoken, in other words, thathave become extinct and are dead. Only a few of those, such asLatin, Ancient Greek and Sanskrit, have been kept alive artificiallyand are still widely known, and sometimes even spoken in certainspecial circumstances by quite a number of persons, as is the casewith Latin and Sanskrit, and by a few persons in the case ofAncient Greek and Egyptian.

Each language reflects a unique world-view and culture complex,mirroring the manner in which a speech community has resolvedits problems in dealing with the world, and has formulated itsthinking, its system of philosophy and understanding of the worldaround it. In this, each language is the means of expression of theintangible cultural heritage of a people, and it remains a reflectionof this culture for some time even after the culture which underliesit decays and crumbles, often under the impact of an intrusive,powerful, usually metropolitan, different culture. However, withthe death and disappearance of such a language, an irreplaceableunit in our knowledge and understanding of human thought andworld-view is lost forever.

The dying and disappearance of languages have been going on forthousands of years as a natural event in human society, but at a

slow rate, with a few languages here and there in the world disap-pearing slowly over the years. This trend sometimes increasedlocally for a short period of time, for instance when a powerful,conquering group of warriors attacked and killed off certain smallgroups of people speaking a variety of different languages, andwhose languages died with them, or when natural disasters suchas violent volcanic eruptions or great floods wiped out small tribesof people who spoke a number of local languages. However, suchevents did not bring about the disappearance of hundreds oflanguages at the same time and at a steady or increasing rate, anddid not result in a drastic and catastrophic reduction in thenumber of languages spoken in the world.

However, the past three hundred years or so have seen a dramaticincrease in the death and disappearance of languages, at asteadily increasing rate in many parts of the world, leading to asituation today in which 3,000 or more languages that are stillspoken are endangered, seriously endangered or dying, with manyother still viable languages already showing signs of being poten-tially endangered and soon entering the phase where they will beendangered and will face disappearance.

What exactly does it mean when a language is referred to as being‘endangered’? Basically, the language of any community that is nolonger learned by children, or at least by a large part of the childrenof that community (say, at least 30 per cent), should be regarded as‘endangered’ or at least ‘potentially endangered’. If a large portionof the children switch to another language, then more and more chil-dren will act likewise until there are no child speakers left, and thelanguage will eventually disappear with the death of its last speakers.

It is important to know that a language which is in danger ofdisappearing can still be saved, provided that an appropriatelanguage policy is adopted: the case of Hebrew is a good exampleof the revival of a language that ceased to be a living communitylanguage thousands of years ago.

A language can become ‘endangered’ for other reasons even if ithas child speakers. The first of these reasons is the forceful split-ting up and transplanting of the speech community that speaks agiven language, putting small groups or even only individuals ofthe speech community into communities that use anotherlanguage. This will inevitably kill the original language of thetransplanted people in a short amount of time. A second situationin which a language becomes ‘endangered’ and threatens to disap-pear occurs when a particular speech community comes into face-to-face contact with carriers of a more aggressive culture, whospeak another, usually metropolitan, language. The first culture isoverwhelmed and threatened with disintegration, because masteryof the intrusive language offers economic advantages to thespeakers of the language of the weaker culture. Parents of childrenin the weaker culture tend to encourage their children to use thelanguage of the stronger culture in preference to their own, andwill themselves tend to speak to their children in that preferredlanguage. The young generation will soon learn to despise theirtraditional language and regard it as worthless and inferior, andcease to be interested in it. A third group of causes for the endan-germent or even disappearance of local and minority languagescan be indirectly attributed to the actions of people of a dominantculture that lead to the destruction of the environment, habitatand livelihood of the speakers of local languages, e.g. mining, oil


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drilling, excessive tree felling, damming of rivers, warfare, etc.These actions lead to the transplanting and scattering of thespeakers of the local languages, with disastrous results for theirlanguages. Other types of causes of the endangerment or disap-pearance of very small to moderately small, local languagesinclude natural catastrophes such as volcanic eruptions, severeearthquakes, tsunamis (gigantic waves hitting shorelines after aseaquake), floods, wildfires, new devastating diseases andepidemics resulting from contacts between speakers of locallanguages and those of a dominant culture, where the former haveno resistance to diseases such as influenza or tuberculosis, and inthe past, to smallpox and the like.

In our discussion of language endangerment, an important factor isthe number of speakers of a given language. Languages spoken bya large group are less vulnerable to the danger of disappearingthan others. However, the problem here is that the question oflarge or small numbers of speakers is quite relative and is deter-mined by the number of the speakers of surrounding languages whoare culturally aggressive. In Australia, very few of the manyautochthonous languages ever had – or have even today – morethan 1,000 speakers, but they are none the less regarded andreferred to as large languages, because the average number ofspeakers of viable Australian languages with fewer speakers is a fewhundred or even less. The situation is similar in New Guinea andadjacent islands, in parts of Melanesia, and some other parts of theworld. On the other hand, in areas such as India where numerouslanguages have millions of speakers, a language with 10,000 oreven more speakers is regarded as a small language, and will feelpressure from neighbouring languages with millions of speakers.

There are many examples of the three main reasons that we havegiven above for language endangerment. The paradox now comesto light: il would appear that the way to prevent a language frombecoming ‘endangered’ – especially in the second, and to someextent the first, category – would be to promote bi- or multi-lingualism, which is already the norm in many parts of the world,with several thousand, especially smallish, languages spoken bybi- and multilinguals, be they a few members of a speech commu-nity, or very many, or the entire community. Bi- and multi-lingualism make it possible for speakers of languages under threatfrom languages spoken by bearers of aggressive cultures and civi-lizations to acquire a good knowledge of the latter for economicand other reasons, while maintaining a good knowledge of theiroriginal languages. This allows them to preserve their cultural andtraditional identity and maintain their own self-respect and self-esteem. Bi- and multilinguals tend to be superior to monolingualsin having more flexible, more alert minds and a greater andquicker thinking capacity on the basis of a much greater volume ofmemory which they have for mastering two (or in the case ofmultilinguals more than two) different language systems withdifferent vocabularies, grammars, sound structures and idiomaticexpressions. Bi- and multilingualism from very early childhoodonwards, to be maintained past the age of six years, is the mostadvantageous quality any person can possess. Unfortunately, it isnot encouraged in most of the major cultures, the speakers ofwhose languages are overwhelmingly monolingual and wronglyregard monolingualism as the norm and the preferred state forhuman language.

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13History and languages

Meetings between groups of people previously unknown to eachother, and contact with unknown languages, are common events ineveryday life and in human history. Over the past thousand years orso, the shifting of geographical centres of power and domination,as well as sheer demographic increase, has led to intensifyingcontacts between different cultures, and to increasing contactbetween groups of people speaking different and mutuallyincomprehensible languages on an increasing scale. For hundredsof years, these events remained relatively sporadic and, apart from a few exceptions, of relatively minor consequence from alinguistic point of view. Minority groups, usually smaller inpopulation, often the bearers of complex, sophisticated, localtraditional cultures, were frequently less culturally aggressive andpolitically powerful than the groups with whom they came intocontact.

Things took a turn for the worse in the sixteenth and seventeenthcenturies, however, with the explorations, widening of economicinterests and expansionist tendencies of a number of Europeanpeoples – Dutch, English, French, Portuguese, Spaniards andothers, and including Russians moving into Siberia and the FarEast. A devastating consequenceof these migrations was the intro-duction of new diseases into areas such as North America, Siberiaand later Australia, where, for instance, smallpox epidemics took aterrible toll, decimating the local populations, disrupting societal

structure and, naturally, changing the situation from a languagepoint of view since few people – or even none at all – now spokecertain languages. Some speech communities in North America,Siberia and Australia, for instance, were dramatically reduced innumber through smallpox epidemics.

However, the decrease in the numbers of speakers of languagesand the disruption of societies through the introduction ofepidemic diseases was merely one consequence of the meeting oftwo cultures. Encounters between local peoples with people frommore aggressive cultures and civilizations frequently resulted in aclash between the two groups, on a cultural level at the very least.The influence of the dominant culture, economically and culturallyspeaking, upon the local traditional culture and their languageecology, were more pervasive and destructive in certain parts ofthe world. Overpowering and irresistible cultural and social pres-sure from outside often heavily influenced local languages, when itdid not simply cause them to disappear. Traditional languagesfound themselves unsuited to function as vehicles of expressionfor the new culture. This situation was usually made worse by thenegative, contemptuous, destructive and intolerant attitudestowards the languages of local populations by members of thedominant culture group. All of this had a tendency to adverselyaffect the attitudes of the speakers of the traditional languagestowards their own languages, which they began to regard asinferior to the language of the intrusive dominant culture. Such aneffect may be compounded by economic factors: knowledge of thelanguage of the economically stronger culture by members of theeconomically weaker traditional language speech community tendsto lead to economic advantages for the latter which are unobtain-

able by those who do not possess this knowledge. Such economicadvantages usually include eligibility for jobs, with good monetaryrewards, allowing access to coveted goods and services (somethingthat gives the impression to the speakers of the traditionallanguages that their own languages are useless in the changingeconomic situation, and makes them forget other, social andintangible cultural and psychological values inherent in theirtraditional languages. Such impressions and attitudes mean thatthey have less and less regard for their traditional languages, andthis leads to an increased use of the language of the dominantcultures and the eventual disappearance of the traditionallanguages.

This scenario can worsen if, in addition, the representatives of thedominant cultures undertake deliberate acts to discourage thecontinued use of the traditional languages, and this sometimes incontradiction with an official position that would seem toencourage the continued existence of local cultures. Such actionswere, in differing grades of intensity, carried out in the not-so-distant past in much of Aboriginal Australia; in England, withrespect to the Welsh language; in North America and in the formerUSSR, where children were taken from their families and placed inboarding schools, where the languages of instruction becameEnglish or Russian, and children were often forbidden to speaktheir mother tongue at school. In addition, the inhabitants ofsettlements of different ethnic minorities were regrouped bymeans of forced relocations. This led to the total destruction oftraditional cultures and values and the loss of traditionallanguages in many instances.

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Dominated peoples cling to their language as the last rampartagainst foreign domination. Isolated from all the domains ofpublic life (administration, politics, justice, etc.) and modernactivities (trade and industry) and deprived of the major means ofcommunication (press, radio and TV), the speakers of dominatedlanguages are marginalized, and their language is condemned,sooner or later, to disappear.

Circumstances like the ones described above, or similar to them,have led to the death and disappearance of hundreds of languagesover the past 300 years and on an accelerating basis, especially inthe past 100 years, above all in America and Australia. Hundredsmore languages will very likely suffer the same fate in the fore-seeable future. According to our estimates, about half (i.e. about3,000) of the approximately 6,000 languages in the world are nowendangered to some degree or another.

Underlying many of the developments and problems mentionedabove is a practical factor which, until very recently, has attractedlittle, if any, attention among linguists and others concerned withthe problem of languages in danger of disappearing, and whoseimportance has probably not been properly understood.

According to one ‘theory’ about language and the relationshipbetween language and the material and non-material (i.e. spiritualand intangible) elements surrounding its speakers, the world isthought to consist of many parts, and each language provides adifferent set of labels for the same set of parts. This theory main-tains that the differences between languages are only superficial,and that any one language can fully translate any other, because

they are ultimately saying the same thing in different guises. Thistheory implies that the disappearance of any one language is aminor occurrence – the disappearance of one among many of thesame kind. Curiously enough, this theory has many followers, butanyone working seriously with translation between languages fromtwo very different cultures immediately recognizes its fallacy andknows it to be wrong.

A second theory about language argues that most perceptions ofthe world and parts of the world are brought into being andsustained by language itself. Therefore, different languagesemphasize and filter various aspects of a multifaceted reality in avast number of different ways. According to this theory, and as hasalready been said above, every language reflects a unique world-view and culture complex mirroring the manner in which a speechcommunity has resolved its problems in dealing with the world,and has formulated its thinking, philosophy and understanding ofthe world around it. This theory explains why linguistic diversity isan invaluable asset and resource rather than an obstacle toprogress, and why the disappearance of any one language consti-tutes an irretrievable and tragic loss to valuable and irreplaceablehuman knowledge.

It seems remarkable and rather strange that, in contrast to thegreat concern shown by many people for animal and plant speciesthreatened by extinction, there are, with relatively few exceptions,few organized groups concerned about the fact that about halfof one of humanity’s most precious commodities – language diver-sity – is also threatened by extinction. This attitude is, curiouslyenough, shared by some linguists whose interests in human


15

language do not include the role and function of language inculture. It has only been relatively recently that a fair number oflinguists have begun to show any alarm at all at the rapidlyprogressing extinction and endangerment of languages. Thischange in attitude largely coincides with an increasing awarenessof language as an intrinsic part of the culture and society of thosewho speak it.

Frequently, when people are made aware of the problem, theirreaction is simply to ask why there is any problem at all, and whatvalue there could be in studying, or in trying to maintain, all ofthe world’s languages. But this reaction reflects ignorance of thecomplexity and high level of human thought inherent in each indi-vidual language, including the languages spoken by peopleregarded as ‘primitive’ by the speakers of languages with generalor international ‘currency’. It also reflects their ignorance of thefact that each language is unique, in as much as each languagehas a different thought pattern and world-view underlying it, andthat the loss of any one language means a contraction, reductionand impoverishment of the sum total of the reservoir of humanthought and knowledge as expressible through language, the toolenabling cultures to exist through intercommunication.

To give just a few examples, many highly effective medicinal plantsare known only to people in traditional cultures; their languagespossess specific names for these plants. When their languages andcultures are lost, the knowledge about these plants and theirhealing properties is lost too, unless a linguist or other interestedperson has recorded the names and a description of the propertiesbefore the disappearance. Curare and quinine are examples from

South America. Their medicinal properties were known to the localforest tribes long before they came into contact with Europeans.Another striking example was recently reported from northernAustralia, where ailments such as severe skin ulcers, which failedto respond to European drugs, cleared up quickly when lotionsderived from certain plants known to members of local Aboriginaltribes were applied at the local hospital. The Aborigines had devel-oped a detailed knowledge of the use of medicinal plants.Fortunately, the nursing sister on hand had been in contact withAboriginal people for twenty-two years, and took the Aboriginalpeople, their knowledge and their culture seriously. The success ofthis and similar traditional treatments has broken the ice withcertain doctors trained according to rational principles, and a widesearch for other effective medicinal plants in Australia has nowbegun with the help of Aboriginal people providing the words thatthey use (in their now seriously endangered languages) for theseplants.

Another, slightly different example, will illustrate the value of thestudy of traditional, and now endangered, languages forenhancing the thought patterns and perception abilities ofspeakers of metropolitan languages. In the Inuit languages, thereare many different words for a concept that is expressed in justone word in the English language, namely, ‘snow’, and each of theInuit words indicates a completely different type of snow. Fromthis, English speakers could come to a new discovery about sharp-ening one’s perception of natural phenomena. There are thousandsof similar examples from little-known languages that can enrichthe entire perceptual field of those who speak only one general orinternational language. Thus there is considerable value and merit

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in the study and proper understanding of local, and especiallyendangered, languages. It is probably high time for the messageto be more widely disseminated. The effective spreading of asimilar message concerning the dangers of the impoverishment ofbiodiversity in the world resulting from the extinction of animaland plant species has fallen on fertile ground – it is hoped thatthe message concerning the impoverishment of human thoughtresulting from the extinction and disappearance of languages mayalso be heard and understood.

There is a strongly ingrained belief, especially among nativespeakers of what are considered to be major, dominatinglanguages, that monolingualism and monoculturalism aloneconstitute the normal and acceptable state for human beings.Consequently, speakers of other languages that come within thepolitical orbit of a nation or region ruled by speakers of onelanguage, and who are to become members or at least associatemembers of such a nation, are faced with a hard choice: eitherthey become full representatives of the culture of such a nationand speak – or at least pretend to speak – the dominant languagemonolingually, or they stay out. If circumstances have placed themby force within such a political orbit, they become underprivilegedfringe members of the community. It rarely occurs to speakers of adominant language that bi- and multilingualism is widespread andis becoming the norm in many continents or countries or regions(e.g. Finland, Switzerland, much of other parts of Europe, Africa,India, Indonesia, the south-western Pacific area, Paraguay, thePhilippines – to name just a few).

We might mention here that in some places (e.g. New Guinea andNew Caledonia, where small, indigenous speech communities, eachof them speaking a different language, are in close contact witheach other and have been for a long time), egalitarian multilin-gualism is the norm, with all languages having equal standing andprestige. This indeed constitutes a fitting example for other civi-lizations to follow! Australia is headed this way: a very largeproportion of the population is foreign born; numerous culturalpatterns exist peacefully side by side; multiculturalism is officialgovernment policy; and numerous European and Asian languagescan be heard everywhere in the streets with bi- and multilin-gualism on the rise. The same holds in New Zealand, where Maori,the original Polynesian language of the country, holds officialstatus along with English, and is now taught in many schools.Switzerland is a good European example: here, even the small,now standardized, Romansch language (about 67,000 speakers)enjoys official status and receives full government support. Asimilar situation exists in southern Finland for Finnish andSwedish, and there are other recent examples of similar positivedevelopments and attitudes.

What we have just outlined in the above paragraphs indicates thatit is possible for minority and other small languages, together withat least some elements of their traditional cultures, to continue toexist in a context of stable bilingualism and biculturalism evenafter their speakers have acquired full knowledge and mastery ofthe dominant language and culture into whose orbit they haveinescapably been drawn by historical events. Their traditionallanguage and culture gives them something to be proud of, and provides a counterbalance to the often paternalistic,


17

18contemptuous or intolerant attitudes of certain monolingualspeakers of the dominant language. The continued possession of atraditional language and aspects of their own culture gives thespeakers of the minority and lesser-spoken languages the feelingthat they are in possession of something that the speakers of thedominant language do not have. This, in addition to their bi- andperhaps multilingualism, and indeed biculturalism, is an intangibleyet very real asset.

It should also be pointed out here that, although it is not sowidely known, bi- and multiculturalism are also quite possible inhuman society. An individual can be just as readily bicultural, ‘athome in two cultures’, as bilingual. Another culture, with its char-acteristic thought patterns and world-views, can be learned asother languages can be learned. In groups and nations, bi- andmulticulturalism mean the peaceful, tolerant and conflict-freecoexistence, side-by-side, of individuals belonging to differentcultures.

The question of the intellectual and emotional advantages of bi- ormultilingualism and biculturalism gives rise, then, to the followingconsiderations. 1) From a practical point of view, those concernedhave access to a far greater volume of information and knowledgethan monolinguals, possess a larger stock of knowledge (bothlinguistic and general) in their minds, grasp different semanticassociations better, and, being used to switching languages andthought patterns, have more flexible minds. 2) They are less rigid

in their attitudes and have a tendency to be more tolerant of theunknown than monolinguals (i.e. they are less hostile and suspi-cious); they are more inclined to regard manifestations of othercultures by individuals as acceptable and respectable, even thoughdifferent from their own cultures. 3) Their thought patterns andworld-view are better balanced due to their familiarity withdifferent, often somewhat contradictory concepts. They havegreater ability than monolinguals to learn concepts, ideas andthings that are entirely new, to fit into novel situations withouttrauma, and to understand the different facets of a problem.

Bi- or multilingualism and biculturalism and understanding andtolerance of other cultures from early childhood onwards is anideal to be attained by human beings. At the same time, languagesand their associated thought patterns and world-views are givenviability, even though they may be under subtle or heavy pressurefrom another language and culture, whose carriers regard mono-lingualism and monoculturalism as an ideal and are therefore lesstolerant, more single-minded and culturally aggressive.

Stable bilingualism can continue for centuries as long as thelanguages exist side by side as equals, and there is no pressurefrom one side or other in favour of its language. Such pressure canbe withstood by awareness that one’s own language is not inferiorto the other, that one can be fully at home in both, and that bi- ormultilingualism, and not monolingualism, is essentially the normin a large part of the world.

The urgent world situation concerning languages in danger ofdisappearing prompted the Permanent International Committee ofLinguists (CIPL) to focus its attention on endangered languages anumber of years ago. At the 14th International Congress ofLinguists in Berlin in 1987, the Committee was asked officially tomake endangered languages a central topic for the 15thInternational Congress of Linguists in Quebec in 1992. At the 17thInternational Congress of Linguists, to be held in Oaxaca, Mexico,in 2002, a plenary session will be devoted to the subject of endan-gered languages as one of the four main themes of the event.

This led to the appearance in 1991 of Endangered Languages,edited by R. H. Robins and E. M. Uhlenbeck, an important workpublished under the auspices of the International Council ofPhilosophy and Humanistic Studies (CIPSH). This book includedfour contributions from the periodical Diogenes (Volume 143),published by CIPSH in parallel editions in several languagesincluding English, French and Spanish. Endangered Languages hasnow been translated into Spanish with a view to publication inthat language.

To further what by then had become a combined CIPSH-CIPLproject, S. A. Wurm, in his capacity as president of CIPSH at thetime, contacted the Sector for Culture at UNESCO in this matterand proposed that steps be taken for: (i) identification of the


19CIPL, CIPSH, UNESCO and languages in danger

endangered languages in the world; (ii) establishment of a databank and communication centre to receive, store and make avail-able to interested scholars and other persons information onendangered and dying languages; and (iii) urgent study oflanguages threatened with extinction in the near or immediatefuture, especially of languages which have not been studied, orstudied very little, and which are either isolated languages (i.e.are not related, or only very distantly related, to knownlanguages) or are in some way special and unusual.

At the 15th International Congress of Linguists held in Quebec(Canada) in 1992, endangered languages were one of the two mainthemes and gave rise to a plenary session. A resolution on endan-gered languages for the attention of UNESCO was unanimouslyadopted on that occasion, as follows:

As the disappearance of any one language constitutes an irretrievable

loss to mankind, it is for UNESCO a task of great urgency to respond to

this situation by promoting and, if possible, sponsoring programmes of

linguistic organizations for the description – in the form of grammars,

dictionaries and texts, including the recording of the oral literatures – of

hitherto unstudied or inadequately documented endangered and dying

languages.

The next step was taken at the 21st CIPSH General Assembly in1992 in Harare (Zimbabwe), when a colloquium was held on thetheme, ‘Life and Death of Languages, in Particular in Africa’, atwhich a number of Africanist linguists participated. The Assemblyunanimously endorsed the resolution which had been adopted bythe 15th International Congress of Linguists, and also unani-

mously adopted a resolution requesting that UNESCO negotiatewith the Government of Japan for the establishment of a clearinghouse and data bank centre in Tokyo.

The response of UNESCO through its Sector for Culture, and of theJapanese authorities, was very favourable, and following negotia-tions, the centre was established as part of the newly createdDepartment of Asian and Pacific Linguistics, Institute of Cross-Cultural Studies, at the Faculty of Letters of the University ofTokyo, with three academic staff members. It had its officialopening in November 1995 in the course of an InternationalSymposium on Endangered Languages. It now possesses materialon over 500 endangered languages, although it has not been veryactive.

By 1994, CIPSH was beginning to receive applications for the studyof endangered languages in various parts of the world, which itthen vetted, suitable ones being forwarded to UNESCO forfinancing. Grants were handed out to successful applicants byCIPSH. The financing of endangered language study applicationsby UNESCO through CIPSH ceased in 1999.

In 2000, other national and international organizations graduallytook over the funding of similar studies and activities. In thisconnection, two urgent research projects undertaken in 1995 withfinancial assistance by CIPL involved the study of two unusualendangered languages in Papua New Guinea. Both of these studieswere concluded with the preparation of grammatical descriptions,extensive vocabularies and texts with interlinear and free transla-tions. The study of another dying Papua New Guinea language

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which had only one fluent speaker left, was undertaken at thesame time, with its results also being published. CIPL intends tosupport further studies of languages in danger of disappearing.

The study of languages in danger of disappearing has two aims.Firstly, in the case of languages that are irrefutably on the way outand moribund, but have not been studied in detail, every effortshould be made to carry out what could be described as a musealstudy for posterity to preserve as much as possible of the knowl-edge of their sound structure, grammar, vocabulary, texts withinterlinear and free translations including specimens of discourseand oral literature, folklore, traditions and myths, together withsound recordings. This would make it possible for scholars and thedescendants of the last speakers to know what the language waslike, and enable these descendants to acquire a knowledge of thedead language again – something that is now increasingly occur-ring with the reawakening of ethnic identity feelings among manygroups in various parts of the world.

In the case of endangered languages with a number of speakers,but which have not been studied in detail, the same type of studyis necessary, but with an additional aim: if there is a desire on thepart of the speakers to maintain their language, perhaps in a bilin-gual situation, the results of such a study would, together withsome advice on language maintenance, enable the speakers toinduce and teach the children (and adolescents and young adults)in their community to learn this language or to relearn it if theyhave lost their previous knowledge of it. Such situations are occur-ring with increasing frequency as people whose languages are indanger of disappearing remember their ethnic identity and wish to

reinforce it through the powerful symbol of their traditionallanguages.

The interest in languages in danger of disappearing extends to themaintenance and preservation of such languages. Differentmethods are used to maintain endangered languages and possiblyrevive those seriously endangered. Most importantly, the ethnicself-awareness of the speakers of such languages should be awak-ened and strengthened as they come to realize that they possesssomething that speakers of the dominant language around themdo not have. Major efforts should be made to concentrate onhelping their children acquire and maintain a knowledge of theendangered language. Special playing situations in which theendangered language is exclusively used might be developed, withrewards for children who respond positively. Additional reasonsand circumstances should be envisaged to raise the interest of thespeakers of an endangered language in preserving and main-taining that language. For instance, their language could be usedas a secret language, unintelligible to the speakers of the domi-nant language, whom they may have reason to regard as theiroppressors. As a background to the revival and maintenance of anendangered language, still-remembered aspects of the traditionalculture and activities of its speakers should be reawakened.

The percentage of the hitherto unstudied or only little studiedendangered or dying languages that can still be studied beforetheir extinction and irretrievable disappearance, and knowledgeand information about them preserved for posterity, will dependon the amount of funding available for this purpose, the avail-ability of scholars and local people with some linguistic training (a


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22question closely connected with the amount of funding available)and in part on the co-operation and goodwill of the authorities insome countries, particularly in developing countries. An ap-preciable number of endangered and dying languages couldaccordingly be selected for study before their extinction, or atleast material on them collected, so that they remain visible. It ishoped that activities will enable a number of endangeredlanguages, whose adult speakers are anxious to maintain andpreserve them, to continue as living languages. Also, it is hoped

that the results of work in various projects will be made availableto the interested audience worldwide, which in turn may beexpected to have beneficial results for the wider appreciation andrecognition of the problem of endangered languages. Publicationsmay make more people aware of the fact that many endangeredlanguages exist and this may increasingly result in the realizationamong decision-makers and speakers of endangered languagesthemselves that the worldwide problem is very serious indeed.


23Remarks on the present atlas

It was felt necessary, in order to attract public interest to theserious worldwide problem of endangered languages and languagedisappearance in a graphic and easily understandable manner, torepublish this small Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger ofDisappearing. It is well known that a few appropriate graphicrepresentations of a problem will convey a message much moresuccinctly and convincingly than any number of pages of detailedexplanation.

The maps are intended to show the seriousness and widespreadnature of the endangerment and disappearance of languages inmany parts of the world. In a selective manner, they cover theentire globe. On each map, languages are shown by their names,with one of five symbols added. These symbols indicate whetherlanguages are in danger of disappearing, moribund or alreadyextinct. ‘In danger of disappearing’ indicates a progressive processthat moves from potentially endangered to endangered, and on toseriously endangered, and eventually to moribund, and ultimatelyto extinct. The meanings of the terms used here are: potentiallyendangered, children are no longer learning the language; endan-gered, the youngest speakers are young adults; seriously endan-gered, the youngest speakers are moving into middle age andbeyond in the more advanced stage of the process, and many nolonger have a good knowledge of the language; moribund, only ahandful of speakers are left, mostly very old; and finally, extinct,

no speakers are left. See the page before the maps for the relevantsymbols.

This small Atlas is not intended to give full coverage of thelanguages of the world which belong to the categories rangingfrom ‘in danger of disappearing’ to ‘moribund’, with some extinctlanguages added; however, by showing a number of suchlanguages for a range of areas in all major parts of the world, itintends to convey a graphic, easily understood image of theextremely widespread nature of the problem of language endan-germent. It is hoped that when the reader comes to the full real-ization that he or she is looking only at a sample of the problem,the full, grim truth will sink in fully.

In many cases, especially with endangered languages that havealmost disappeared and moribund languages, it is difficult, if notimpossible, to indicate the present area of such languages,because quite often they are no longer spoken anywhere near theirtraditional areas. This is because the speakers have been removedfar away to reservations or resettlement places by local authori-ties, or scattered far and wide by them into communities or settle-ments among speakers of other languages. Alternatively, the lastspeakers of a moribund language may have sought shelter withother speech communities on a voluntary basis wherever they metwith a friendly reception or at least tolerance. On most of themaps, no borders of languages have been indicated, even in casesin which their surviving speakers are still living more or less insidetheir traditional area, but are now so few in number that indi-cating the area in which their language is spoken becomes mean-ingless. Often it is not known where all the scattered remaining

speakers of such languages (especially moribund), may be living.Only the language name with the appropriate symbol has beengiven. The symbol has been placed either in the approximate areawhere some speakers of the named language are known to beliving, or, if the location of such an area is not well-known, after agiven language name on the understanding that the name andsymbol mark the approximate location of the language in ques-tion. With coastal languages, the combination of language nameand symbol may well extend into the sea.

The individual maps cover areas of quite different size, rangingfrom parts of countries such as the north-east of China to widerareas such as the northern and eastern, western and southernparts of Canada, Siberia, a part of East Africa and so forth, andcontinental areas such as Australia, Africa, much of Europe, and allof South America. The latter type of maps show the widespread,pervasive nature of the problem over vast geographical expanses,and are thus more impressive.

The explanations given on the situation of endangered languagesin the areas dealt with on maps in this Atlas reflect the presentstate of research, which at present is only preliminary.

Eurasia

EuropeThe only languages in Europe that are generally known to be indanger of disappearing are the Celtic languages of Britain andIreland, such as Scottish Gaelic, Irish Gaelic and Welsh. Manx is

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already extinct, and Cornish died out at the end of the eighteenthcentury, but was artificially revived and now has a number ofspeakers. In French Brittany, Breton is spoken. In Scandinavia,several of the Saami (Lappish) languages are seriously endangeredor moribund. Not far from Finland, on Russian territory, severalsmall threatened Finno-Ugrian languages are spoken, such asIngrian, Ludian, Olonetsian, Vepsian, Votian and the largeKarelian. The Finno-Ugrian moribund Livonian is found in westernLithuania. The Finno-Ugrian languages also include the Estonian,Finnish and Hungarian languages which are not endangered. TheSaami languages mentioned above also belong to the Finno-Ugriangroup. In northern Germany, Frisian and Low German, as well asseveral small surviving Slavic languages such as Kashubian andSorbian, are on the danger list. Further south in Switzerland andnorthern Italy, several Rhaeto-Romansh languages are in danger,i.e. Romansch, Ladin and Friulan, as are a number of otherRomance languages in Italy (including Sardinia), Albania, Greece,southern France and Spain, such as Ligurian, Lombardian,Piemontese, the four forms of Sardinian, and also Corsican onFrench Corsica. All these are endangered to some extent, as areFranco-Provençal and Provençal which are endangered in Italy andseriously endangered in France. In the Balkans, the threatenedIstriot and Istro-Rumanian in Croatia and Aromunian in Albaniaare also Romance languages (French, Italian, Portuguese andSpanish too are important Romance languages). Meglenitic andTsakonian in Greece are related to Greek. The threatened Gagauz inEuropean Turkey, Bulgaria, the former Yugoslav Republic ofMacedonia and Moldavia is a Turkic language closely related toTurkish. Karaim in Lithuania, the Ukraine, and on the CrimeanPeninsula in the northern part of the Black Sea is also Turkic, as

are Nogai and Crimean Tatar. In Belgium, France and Spain thereare several further threatened Romance languages such as Walloonin Belgium, Franco-Provençal, Provençal (Occitan), Auvergnat,Limousin, Languedocien and Gascon (also in Spain) in France, alsoAragonese, Asturian, Galician and Leonese in Spain. Mozarabic insouthern Spain is extinct. The Basque language, which is endan-gered in Spain and seriously endangered in France, is not Indo-European like most of the other languages in Europe (except forthe Finno-Ugrian languages mentioned above) and it is an isolatelanguage, that is, it seems to be unrelated to any other knownlanguage. The only other remaining threatened language in Europeoutside Russia is Scots in Scotland, which is becoming endan-gered. Romance Catalan in eastern Spain (and overlapping intoFrance), regarded by some as potentially endangered, is nowincreasingly re-invigorated.

In European Russia, apart from small Finno-Ugrian languages nearFinland already mentioned above, several Finno-Ugrian languagesin the north are in danger, such as Moksha and Erzya, Western andEastern Mari, Udmurt, Permyak and Komi. There are also twoendangered Turkic languages in north-eastern Russia, in additionto the threatened ones mentioned before in the south of EuropeanRussia. These northern ones are the highly aberrant Turkiclanguage called Chuvash, and the Bashkir language which isclosely related to Tatar of the same area and further east, which isnot threatened. The Mongolian Kalmyk language, to the north-east of the Black Sea on the lower Volga River, is endangered.

Finally, there are varieties of the Romani (Gypsy) language in mostparts of Europe, most of them threatened to some extent at least.


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The plight of most of these languages is due to heavy pressurefrom the dominant languages of the countries where they arespoken; in some cases, especially in the past, this has beencombined with deliberate policies aiming at their suppression.Some notable exceptions to this are countries such as Norway,Switzerland and a few others which have been actively furtheringand supporting the use of minority languages. In recent years,there has been a strong upswing in interest for minority languagesin many places in Europe, and a strengthening of the ethnic andlinguistic awareness of their speakers.

SiberiaIn western and southern Siberia, most local languages are indanger of disappearing: Finno-Ugrian, Samoyedic, Turkic,Mongolian and Tungusic languages, and one Palaeo-Siberianlanguage.

The Finno-Ugrian languages in western Siberia belong to theUgrian section of Finno-Ugrian, whereas all Finno-Ugrianlanguages mentioned under ‘Europe’ belong to the Finnic sectionof Finno-Ugrian, except for Hungarian, which is Ugrian, andinclude the western Siberian Mansi and Khanty languages, itsnearest relatives. The ancestors of the present-day Hungarianslived in the same area as today’s Mansi and Khanty speakers, butleft that area about 3,000–4,000 years ago. The Western SiberianUgrian languages are seriously endangered and moribund. TheSamoyedic languages are related to the Finno-Ugrian languages,and together with them constitute the Uralian languages group.The Samoyedic languages are located in north-western Siberia,

and the so-called southern Samoyedic languages, of which Selkupis the only surviving member, is seriously endangered in parts ofits territory and moribund in others. Kamas survived until the early1990s, but Mator died long ago. Of the north-western Samoyediclanguages Nenets, Enets and Nganasan, the Tundra Nenets dialectis only endangered, the others being seriously endangered ormoribund. Nganasan is functioning well among the members ofthe old generation, but is not being passed on properly to theyounger generation.

The Mongolian, Tungusic and Turkic languages belong to the so-called Altaic group, to which some linguists also attach Japaneseand Korean. The closely interrelated Turkic languages (with theexception of the Churash language mentioned under ‘Europe’) arefound in Turkey, the Caucasus, eastern Europe and easternEuropean Russia (see the ‘Europe’ section), Central Asia, Siberia,northern Mongolia and northern and western China. In Siberiathey are mostly small languages spoken in south-western Siberia,such as Siberian Tatar, Shor, Teleut, Altai, Khakas, Chulym andTofa. Most of these are endangered or seriously endangered, withthe last two moribund. In northern and north-eastern Siberia, thelarge Yakut and the Dolgan languages are Turkic, with Dolganspoken by Turkicized Samoyeds. Both are well-functioninglanguages, though regarded by some linguists as potentiallyendangered. Yakut is now taking over from Russian as the inter-language lingua franca, or contact language, in north-easternSiberia. The speakers of most of the small south-western SiberianTurkic languages were originally speakers of southern Samoyediclanguages, but became Turkicized. The closely interrelatedMongolian languages are spoken in Mongolia, southern Siberia and

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northern and western China. In Siberia, only the regionally poten-tially or seriously endangered Buryat language is spoken, as wellas the regionally endangered or moribund Khamnigan Mongollanguage near the border of northern China. The closely inter-related Tungusic languages are very widespread in central, easternand north-eastern Siberia, on the Kamchatka Peninsula, onSakhalin Island, and in north-eastern and western China, but theyhave few speakers, with the exception of the Sibo dialect of theManchu language, which was the language of the Manchuconquerers of China in the early seventeenth century AD, and theofficial language of the Manchu dynasty which ruled China until1913. Their language has now almost vanished in China, there areonly a few aged speakers left in north-east China (see the North-east China map in this Atlas, p. 58), but a Manchu garrison wassent to Western China (Xinjiang) in the seventeenth century, andamong their descendants there are still well over 20,000 speakersof a dialectal form of Manchu called Sibo. The largest ethnicTungusic group today are the Ewenki, widespread in small commu-nities from central to eastern and south-eastern Siberia, and intonorth-east China. In Siberia, there are 26,000 ethnic Ewenki, andclose to 20,000 in China. Only 6,000 still speak the language inSiberia, whereas many of those in China still know their language.There are efforts for its revival in Siberia. Other importantTungusic languages are Even in north-eastern Siberia and on theKamchatka Peninsula, and a number of small Tungusic languagesin the Russian Far East and on Sakhalin Island, such as Nanay,Negidal, Olcha, Oroch, Orok and Udege. All of these are seriouslyendangered or moribund.

The remaining languages of Siberia are Palaeo-Siberian languages

belonging to three different groups that are probably not relatedto each other, and there is one doubtful language. In westernSiberia, along the middle and upper Yenisey River there is (in partwas) the Ketic group of languages of which the seriously endan-gered Ket and the moribund Yug are the surviving members. Kot onthe upper Yenisey has long been extinct. The Ketic languages donot seem to be related to any other known languages, thoughthere have been attempts to link them with languages outsideSiberia. A large Palaeo-Siberian group is the Chukchee-Koryak-Alyutor-Kamchadal group in north-eastern Siberia and theKamchatka Peninsula. The first three are individual languages, allof them seriously endangered. Kamchadal originally consisted ofthree languages, of which only Itelmen proper survives today as amoribund language. The other two are extinct. A moribund smalllanguage, Kerek, is closely related to Chukchee. Further, there isthe Nivkh language on the lower Amur River in the Russian Far Eastand on northern Sakhalin Island. It seems unrelated to any otherknown language, though attempts have been made to link it withthe Chukchee group. Finally, the doubtful Palaeo-Siberianlanguage is Yukagir, spoken in two separate locations in north-eastern Siberia. The extinct Chuvan language was also Yukagiric.Recent studies suggest strongly that the language is related to theUralian languages (see above). It seems moribund, but attempts atreviving it are in progress.

In addition to all these languages, there are several Asiatic Eskimolanguages on the eastern shores of the Chukchee Peninsula, suchas Central Siberian Yupik Eskimo, which is extinct in two locationsand endangered in another, Naukanski Eskimo, which is seriouslyendangered, and Sirenitski Eskimo which became extinct in 1999


27

with the death of its last speaker (see the Arctic North AmericaWest map, p. 74).

All the threatened languages mentioned above have been underenormous pressure from Russian and, in the past, were the targetof deliberate Soviet policies aiming at obliterating them, throughmethods such as the removal of children to distant boardingschools where they were forbidden to speak their language to oneanother, and forced resettling of members of speech communitiesamong speakers of other languages including Russian. Only sincethe disintegration of the former Soviet Union have there beensigns of a reawakening of ethnic identity awareness among someSiberian peoples, with simultaneous growing interest in thepreservation, revival and furthering of their languages.

A considerable amount of work on endangered and dyinglanguages in Siberia has been carried out by Russian scholars,scholars from outside Russia (i.e. linguists from Europe, in partic-ular from Finland, Hungary and some other countries), as well asby American scholars from Alaska. Increasingly, linguists from thelocal language areas have also been studying endangered Siberianlanguages. However, there is still much work to be done on them.

CaucasusThe Caucasus area contains a number of languages in danger,especially in Daghestan and the Georgian Republic. Some of themare under pressure from large local languages, such as Turkic Azer-baijan, and from Russian. Their speakers are fiercely proud of theirethnic identity, and resist the demise of their languages strongly.

The forty Caucasian languages constitute a separate group ofinterrelated languages with four subgroups: north-western, north-eastern (or Daghestan), and southern Caucasus languages, with anorthern (or northern central) group geographically between thenorth-western and north-eastern groups. The language of theChechens belongs to this northern group. Famous languages of thenorth-western group are Circassian and Abkhas, which are notedfor having the largest number of consonants of any language inthe world and very few vowels – this makes them sound so alienthat outsiders doubt whether they are listening to a humanlanguage when they hear it. Georgian is a well-known member ofthe southern group, and the Caucasian language with the largestnumber of speakers, over 5,000,000. The twenty-seven north-eastern languages are the most numerous; some of them have veryfew speakers. Some of the more familiar names of north-easternlanguages are Andi, Archi, Avar, Hunzib, Lak, Lezgin, Tabassaran,Tsakhur and Udi.

There are a number of Turkic and other non-Caucasian languages(Iranian Kurdish, Ossetic, Tat and Talysh) in the Caucasus area. Themost important are the Turkic Azerbaijan language in the south-east, which exerts pressure on several north-eastern Caucasianlanguages, and the Indo-European Armenian language. The TurkicNogai (already mentioned in the Europe section) and Kumyklanguages are important as trade languages in the east of theCaucasus area, and they also put pressure on some north-easternCaucasian languages.

The one moribund Caucasus language is the northern CaucasusBats (or Batsbi) in one village in northern Georgia, which is

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succumbing to Georgian. Some quite large languages of the north-eastern group have lost whole villages to the Azerbaijan languageand could perhaps be regarded as potentially endangered, e.g. theLak and Tabassaran languages. Some of the north-easternlanguages have quite substantial numbers of speakers: Tabassaranhas today 78,000 speakers. There are some with far fewerspeakers: Tsakhur has 5,200; Udi 6,100; Hunzib 5,000; Khinalug1,000; Budukh 900; Kryz 1,300; Archi, Tindi and Godoberi havesimilar small numbers of speakers, and Hinukh even less. Theselanguages are potentially endangered, as is Hinukh, under pres-sure from the large local languages, and from Russian, though thefierce pride of the speakers, mentioned above, acts as a bulwarkagainst language loss.

The situation is different in the southern Caucasus Group, wherethe speakers of the four small languages Adzhar, Laz, Mingrelianand Svan, which are closely related to Georgian and spoken withinGeorgia, are all bilingual in Georgia, with their languages beingnow gradually superseded by Georgian. They have to be regardedas endangered.

Much work on Caucasus languages has been carried out by Russianand non-Russian scholars, but there is still room for work on theselanguages, especially the north-eastern ones.

Asia

ChinaIn China, the main areas where languages are in danger of disap-pearing are in north-east and north-western China and westernXinjiang, and Yunnan in the far south. These languages are in partunder heavy pressure from Chinese. In some areas, ethnic identityis strengthening, with a positive influence on language mainte-nance.

The present Atlas contains a map of the threatened languages ofnorth-east China. All of them belong to the Altaic group (see‘Siberia’ under ‘Eurasia’), i.e. the Turkic, Mongolian and Tungusicparts of it. The only Turkic language is the moribund ManchurianKirghiz (Fuyu). The Mongolian languages are Eastern Buriat inChina, Khamnigan Mongol, Old and New Bargut and Dagur; and theTungusic ones are Ewenki proper, Khamnigan Ewenki, Orochen,Manchu, and Solon. With the exception of Eastern Buriat in China,and Dagur and Solon in western locations where they are onlypotentially endangered, these languages are all endangered, seri-ously endangered, or moribund, although the number of speakersof Ewenki proper and Khamnigan Ewenki are still considerable.

Elsewhere in China, there are threatened languages in the north-west and in western Xinjiang, the westernmost province of China.The local languages here are mainly Turkic and Mongolian; themain Turkic language, Uyghur, has 6,000,000 speakers. Of otherTurkic languages, Kazak is also strongly represented with1,000,000 speakers. Kirghiz has 100,000 speakers in Xinjiang. Thevery large Turkic languages, Uzbek and Tatar, are only slightly


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represented in Xinjiang and elsewhere in China. The small localTurkic language, Western Yugur, is spoken in Kansu Province innorth-west China by less than 5,000 speakers in the neighbour-hood of Mongolian languages; it is potentially endangered. Next toit is the small Mongolian Eastern or Yellow Yugur language witheven fewer speakers, also potentially endangered. In the western-most part of Xinjiang Province, several Turkic, Mongolian andTungusic languages are spoken. Most of the local people, but notthe Chinese living there, are multilingual in their own language, aTurkic (Uyghur) and a Mongolian language (Oirat dialect), as wellas in Chinese. The Tungusic Sibo-Manchu language is spoken onlyby the Sibo themselves, but they also speak every one of thelanguages known by the other non-Chinese-mother tonguespeakers there. The number of speakers of the small, moribundTungusic Orochen language is dwindling.

In southern parts of China such as Yunnan Province, there are alarge number of smallish, mainly Tibeto-Burman languages whichare related to Tibetan and Burman, and ultimately also to Chinese,because all these languages belong to the vast Chino-Tibetangroup of languages. In the same areas, there are also other, oftensmallish, languages not related to the Tibeto-Burman languages,such as the so-called Miao-Yao languages, spoken mostly by peopleliving in the mountains, also the so-called Kam-Tai languagesrelated to the Thai language of Thailand, and to the Austronesianlanguages of the Pacific area (see the text of the Pacific surveymap), and also some of the so-called Austroasiatic languageswhich are spoken mainly outside China in South-East Asia andIndia. Some of these languages, especially small ones, are threat-ened, e.g. the (Miao-) Yao language Bunu which has only 1,400

speakers, the She language, also Miao-Yao, spoken by only 1,000of the 300,000 ethnic She, and others (see also the text of themap of South-East Asia). The level of endangerment in southernChina is not yet well known, in spite of ongoing research work. Forinstance, the large Yi nationality, which was until very recentlybelieved to have four different languages, was found last year tohave a much larger number of small to very small languages, manyof them probably threatened.

A considerable amount of work on endangered languages inYunnan has been carried out through the Nationality LanguagesDepartment of the Yunnan Institute of Nationalities, and byscholars from outside China; still, a great deal of work remains tobe done on these languages. Similarly, scholars from inside andoutside China have undertaken extensive work on endangeredlanguages in north-east and north-west China and in Xinjiang, butmuch remains to be done on certain languages.

Himalayan ChainThe threatened languages on the map of the Himalayan Chainbelong to the family of Tibeto-Burman, or its various branches. Forthe term ‘Tibeto-Burman’, see the text on China. Tibeto-Burmanlanguages are very widespread, and as can be seen from the insetmap of India and Myanmar (former Burma), they occur (or occur-red) in those countries as well. One remarkable fact is that allTibeto-Burman languages show inflections, i.e. grammaticalchanges in the words, whereas the related Chinese has virtually nosuch inflections. It is believed that thousands of years ago,Chinese had such inflections, but lost them long ago, perhaps

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through simplification as a trade and contact language withspeakers of other languages, possibly ancestors of today’s Thailanguages, in the small area of ancient China.

Of the languages shown on the map, Darmiya, Rangkhas, Tolchaand Chaudangsi/Byangsi in the west, on Indian territory, belongto the West Himalayish branch of Tibeto-Burman. Of the languageson Nepalese territory, Dura, Rohani, Chantel and Bhrahmu in thewest belong to the so-called Bodish branch, and Hayu, Dumi,Tilung, Bungla, Saam, Lumba and Chintang in central and easternNepal to the so-called Kiranti/Rai branch. Dhimal in eastern Nepal,Lepcha, Toto and Tahom on Indian territory and Pyu and Danan inMyanmar belong to other branches of Tibeto-Burman.

The potentially endangered, endangered, seriously endangered,moribund or extinct status of the Himalayan Chain languages onthe map is the result of pressure from dominant languages: inNepal especially from Nepali, on Indian territory from relevantlanguages in northern and north-western India, and in Myanmarfrom Myanmar languages in the central and eastern parts of thecountry.

A large amount of work has been done in endangered languages ofthe Himalayan Chain and in Tibeto-Burman languages in general,mainly by linguists from Europe, especially the Netherlands andthe United Kingdom, Australia and the United States, but muchfurther work remains to be done.

Indian subcontinentOn the Indian subcontinent, relatively few languages are in dangerof disappearing in spite of the multiplicity of languages. Theirvitality may be explained by means of widespread egalitarian bi-and multilingualism. The languages which do appear to be indanger of disappearing are tribal and other relatively smalllanguages, which are losing speakers to the various largerlanguages in the Indian subcontinent.

The extremely large number of languages on the Indian subconti-nent are Indo-Aryan in the centre and to some extent in thenorth, Iranian languages in the north-west and especially inPakistan, Dravidian languages in the southern part of India,Austroasiatic languages in the central eastern part, and Tibeto-Burman in the north. In addition, there are other languages in thefar central north of India such as the isolate language Burushaskiand languages of the Andaman isolated group on the AndamanIslands Chain to the east of India, to name but a few.

Threatened languages on the Indian subcontinent are essentiallyin the north-west, north, north-east, east and southern centre.Those in the north-west are Indo-Aryan and Iranian, such as Dardiand the seriously endangered Kohistani. Those in the north andnorth-west are largely Tibeto-Burman languages of which a fewhave already been mentioned in the text on the Himalayan Chain.There are also threatened Romany (Gypsy) languages in the farnorth. Those in the southern centre are Dravidian, such as theseriously endangered Kota and Toda languages. Kuvi is extinctthere. Those in the east are essentially Austroasiatic languages,such as the seriously endangered Birhor and Parenga, and the


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endangered Nahali. Several are extinct, such as Gorum, Bonda andGata. Among the threatened Tibeto-Burman languages several aremoribund, e.g. Kami, Khowar, Khami, Kawri and Tlangtlang; seri-ously endangered, such as Aimol, Aka (Hrusso), Gurung, Kagate,Mru and Purum; or endangered, including Chin, Jad, Kanashi,Khampti, Khoirao, Langrong, Ralte and Tat.

Of the ten languages of the Greater Andaman Islands, nine areextinct and one is moribund. On the Little Andaman Island, Öngestill has over 100 speakers, and the Shompen language, onanother island, about 70.

A very large amount of work on the languages of the Indiansubcontinent has been done over the years by Indian, British andother scholars, however, relatively little attention was paid to thesmall threatened languages, except for Tibeto-Burman languages,in which outside linguists have long been interested (see the texton the Himalayan Chain). A great deal of work remains to be doneon the numerous languages of the Indian subcontinent.

Central Asia: Pamir areaAnother area in Asia with a number of endangered and moribundlanguages is the Pamir Mountains area in Central Asia with theadjacent regions in Afghanistan and China. The languages indanger are Pamir Iranian languages; one Mongolian language inAfghanistan is moribund.

The threatened Pamir languages belong to the Iranian languagegroup. They are spoken mainly in the valleys of the Pyandzh River

(the border river between Tajikistan and Afghanistan) and its trib-utaries in Tajikistan and Afghanistan. The languages are Shugni,with 50,000 speakers, formerly the lingua franca in the Pamir area.It has lost this role to Russian and Tajik by now. Closely related toit are Rushan (16,000 speakers), Bartangi (2,000 speakers) andOroshori (1,500 speakers). Pamir languages less closely related toShugni are Yazgulami (2,000 speakers) and Ishkashim (2,100speakers). Further south-east and east of those languages,another Pamir language, Wakhi, is spoken by 10,000 speakers inAfghanistan, 20,000 in Pakistan. A small number of its speakersoverlap into China, where to the north, in the easternmost part ofXinjiang Province, another small Pamir language, Sarikoli, isspoken. In China, both Sarikoli and Wakhi are wrongly called Tajik,which is an Iranian language very close to Persian, and the officiallanguage of Tajikistan. It is only distantly related to the Pamirlanguages.

The small Pamir languages Bartangi, Ishkashim, Oroshori andYazgulami are becoming potentially endangered, if not actuallyendangered under pressure from Russian and Tajik. Sarikoli inChina is under pressure from Wakhi, the Turkic Uyghur, which is themain local contact language in Xinjiang, and from Chinese. Themoribund Mongol language in Afghanistan is called Moghol.

Much work has been done in the Pamir languages by Russian andoutside linguists, and on Sarikoli (‘Tajik’) by Chinese scholars, butmore remains to be done.

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South-East AsiaOn the Malaccan Peninsula in Malaysia and the Nicobar andAndaman Islands in India, a number of languages are in danger ofdisappearing, largely under pressure from the major languages ofthose countries. There are some signs of ethnic and linguisticrevivalism.

Linguistically, South-East Asia extends northward well intosouthern China. It contains all the language types typical of thosefound in South-East Asian countries, namely, Tibeto-Burmanlanguages, languages of various branches of Austroasiatic, and Tai-Kadai to which the varieties of the Thai language belong. Othersections of Tai-Kadai include the very large group of Austronesianlanguages in the Greater Pacific Area, which contains about 1,200languages. Austronesian languages (of the so-called Chamic family)are found in China on Hainan Island, and in Viet Nam. The mix oflanguage types and languages is different in the various South-EastAsian countries, but the presence of many, mostly small to verysmall languages of several kinds is typical everywhere.

The map of South-East Asia given in the Atlas comprises parts ofViet Nam, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Thailand, Myanmar,China and India. Further south, in Cambodia and Malaysia, outsidethe area covered by the map, the situation found is comparable tothat shown in a sampling manner in the parts of the countriesappearing on the map: one (or several in the case of India) largeofficial, and dominant language(s) in each country, with usuallymany, smaller languages belonging to type(s) of languagesdifferent from the dominant language(s) even if they may bedistantly related to it (or them). So, for instance, of the threat-

ened and extinct languages shown in the eastern part of Indiaappearing on the map, all are Tibeto-Burman in the close clusteron both sides of the India-Myanmar border.

Further north, Tai-Kadai languages occur. The threatenedlanguages appearing in the section of Myanmar shown on the mapare all Tibeto-Burman, some of them sections of Tibeto-Burmanthat are different from that to which Burmese, the dominantlanguage of Myanmar, belongs. The threatened languages shown onthe Thailand part of the map are also Tibeto-Burman and are unre-lated to the dominant Thai language of Thailand (Tai-Kadai). Thethreatened languages appearing on the Lao People’s DemocraticRepublic section of the map are Mon-Khmer Austroasiaticlanguages. However, the dominant language of Lao P.D.R., Laotian,is a Tai-Kadai language closely related to Thai, and thereforeunrelated to, and very different from, these threatened languagesof Lao P.D.R. In Viet Nam, the dominant language, Vietnamese, is aMon-Khmer Austroasiatic language, and therefore related to mostof the languages appearing in the southern part of Viet Nam on themap and which are also Austroasiatic. Mang in the northern part ofViet Nam is also Mon-Khmer, but the other threatened languages inthe north of Viet Nam are Tai-Kadai. Most of the threatenedlanguages in China shown on the map are Tibeto-Burman.

The endangerment and extinction of many small languages inSouth-East Asia results from pressure on them from larger and/ordominant languages. Many of the small local languages stillmanage to resist these pressures, especially in the light of re-awakening feelings of ethnic identity among speakers of smalllanguages.


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Linguists from Australia, Europe, the United States and universi-ties in South-East Asia have been carrying out a considerableamount of work on the endangered languages of South-East Asia.However, especially in view of the large number of small languagesin the area, quite a few of which are endangered, much moreremains to be done.

Greater Pacific Area

The Greater Pacific Area comprises Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines,Insular Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the SolomonIslands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji, Micronesia, Polynesia andAustralia. Over two thousand living languages, about a third of thelanguages in the world, are located in this area. At the same time,until recently, the Greater Pacific Area has been the area leastaffected by language endangerment in the world, with the excep-tion of Australia, New Caledonia and Taiwan. This situation hasdeteriorated during the last two decades, but it is still better thanin most other parts of the world. Details will be given for thevarious regions discussed below, but in general it may be pointedout that the total number of threatened languages in the GreaterPacific Area excluding Australia is 304, with 49 languages recentlyextinct.

The indigenous languages of the Greater Pacific Area belongalmost exclusively to three quite different kinds. The largest cate-gory is the group of approximately 1,200 Austronesian languagesthat extend from Taiwan, across the Philippines, Insular Malaysia,most of Indonesia, many coastal areas of Papua New Guinea, most

of the Solomon Islands and all of Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji,Micronesia and Polynesia. They are all interrelated and form thelargest group of related languages in the world, in terms of multi-tude of languages. They are subdivided into four subgroups inTaiwan, and one huge group, called Malayo-Polynesian, that occu-pies all of the other Austronesian language areas.

The second largest group, comprising about 800 languages, is theso-called family of Papuan languages, which occupy most of IrianJaya (West Papua) and Papua New Guinea, East Timor, thenorthern part of the Halmahera Islands, some parts of West Timorand some large islands to the west of Timor. There are also a fewPapuan languages in the Solomon Islands and in the Santa CruzArchipelago, which lies to the east of the Solomon Islands. ThePapuan languages do not form a single group of interrelatedlanguages, but there is one very large group of nearly 500 relatedlanguages that occupies much of the island of New Guinea and theTimor area; a group of about 100 related languages is located innorth-eastern Papua New Guinea; a group of about 50 languages islocated in northern Papua New Guinea; a group of about30 languages is found in the northern three-quarters of the Bird’sHead Peninsula of Irian Jaya and in northern Halmahera; andanother one of 34 languages is situated in eastern non-peninsularIrian Jaya.

The remaining Papuan languages belong to a number of small,unrelated groups. The third group includes the interrelatedAustralian Aboriginal languages, which belong to a very largefamily occupying the southern seven-eighths of Australia, withabout 20 small related families in Arnhem Land (the northern

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Australian peninsula area), and in areas to the south-east of it.The long-extinct languages of Tasmania may or may not be relatedto Australian languages: the evidence is inconclusive.

Other languages in the Greater Pacific Area are Japanese and Ainuon Japan, and a southern Chinese (Min) and Mandarin Chinese onTaiwan – the result of Min and Mandarin immigration.

JapanThe Japanese language of Japan is one of the Altaic languages(see Siberia), but with a very large number of loanwords fromAncient Chinese, and some influence from Austronesian languages(see above). The Ainu language is generally regarded as a Paleo-Siberian isolate language, but some linguists have tried to link itwith the Altaic languages. It was spoken on northern HokkaidoIsland of Japan, on Sakhalin Island to north of it, and on the KurilIslands chain which links Sakhalin with the Kamchatka Peninsulato the north. It became extinct on the Kuril Islands around theearly years of the twentieth century, and on Sakhalin Island in thelate twentieth century. On Hokkaido it was officially neglecteduntil the late 1980s, when there were only eight elderly speakersleft. Then there was a sudden turnabout in attitude. The languagereceived strong support, teaching facilities were established, and amost impressive Ainu museum built on Hokkaido with languageteaching facilities. A considerable number of semi-speakers whohad feared to use the language were found, and encouraged to useit again. A number of young Ainu have since learned the language,which seems to show signs of reviving.

TaiwanOf the twenty-three local languages spoken originally on Taiwan,seven are threatened, six are in a moribund state, and only one isendangered. Three languages have become extinct recently, eightare still fully functioning, and five became extinct a long time ago.The reason for the extinction and endangerment of Austronesianlanguages in Taiwan was pressure from the dominant Chinesespeakers and their language. Until a few years ago, attitudes andpolicies towards the Austronesian languages were negative anddiscouraging. However, less than a decade ago, these attitudessuddenly shifted completely, and now the languages are supportedby the authorities.

PhilippinesOf the 165 languages on the Philippines, 13 are threatened and 4became extinct recently. There is great tolerance towards smalllanguages, and there are no monolingual speakers of dominantEuropean languages or other comparable aggressive monolingualspeakers there today – hence little language endangerment. Thespeakers of very large Philippine languages, such as Tagalog(10 million first-language and 30–40 million second-languagespeakers) are mostly monolingual, but usually bi- and multilingualspeakers of small Philippine languages simply add the knowledgeof Tagalog to their repertory of languages, without losing theirown languages in the process.


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MalaysiaThere are about 130 languages in insular Malaysia, i.e. Sarawakand Sabah on Borneo, all of them Malayo-Polynesian. Only three ofthem are regarded as endangered, although there are very likelyquite a few more, and one is extinct.

IndonesiaThere are large numbers of languages in Indonesia – well over 400Malayo-Polynesian and about 240 Papuan languages, a total ofover 640 local languages. The only language used for all officialand public purposes, all educational pursuits, and all the media, isIndonesian. There is no direct oppression of any other language,as has been practised by monolingual speakers of dominant metro-politan, especially European, languages in Australia, the Americas,etc. but there is some discouragement of speakers of locallanguages in several parts of Indonesia. Because education issolely in Indonesian, children are conditioned to regard it as su-perior to their own mother tongues, and use it at home and withother family members in preference to their own languages, thusprecipitating the potential endangerment of these latterlanguages, which then progressively become endangered.

The endangerment situation in the various parts of Indonesia is asfollows:

Kalimantan (southern Borneo): of some fifty languages inKalimantan, only one is believed to be endangered, but the endan-germent situation there is very little known; a much larger numberof languages may be in danger.

Sumatra: of the thirteen languages on Sumatra, only two arethreatened, and one of them is perhaps extinct. The otherlanguages are all large and functioning well.

Java: there is no language endangerment in the Java area.

Sulawesi: of the over 110 languages of Sulawesi, 36 are threatenedand one is extinct.

Maluku: of the over 80 languages of the Maluku area, 22 arethreatened and 11 are extinct.

Timor-Flores and Bima-Sumba area: of the 50 or so Malayo-Polynesian languages of this area, eight are threatened, noneextinct. Of the 18 Papuan languages there, at least three arethreatened. The now independent East Timor area is geographi-cally included in this region, with at least one of the Papuanlanguages there seriously endangered or moribund.

West Papua and Halmahera Island area: of the over 50 Malayo-Polynesian languages of this area, eleven are threatened, and one extinct. Of the about 250 Papuan languages, 56 arethreatened.

Papua New GuineaPapua New Guinea has about 820 or more local languages – thehighest number of languages in any area of comparable size in thewhole world. Very few languages have tens of thousands ofspeakers, but a very great number of languages are small to very

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small, with a few hundred speakers or far less. Until two decadesago or so, Papua New Guinea was the area least affected bylanguage endangerment in the world. The speakers of eachlanguage were, and still are, fiercely proud of their language,which they regard as the main symbol of their ethnic identity.However, there has been a very great increase in speaker mobilitysince the late 1970s, resulting in a steadily increasing number ofmarriages between speakers of different languages, many of themoutside the range of the very widespread traditional multilin-gualism in the country. In such cases, the family language hasusually become the national language Tok Pisin, an inter-indiginous contact language and lingua franca spoken by over80 per cent of all Papua New Guineans as a language of widerintercommunication. It has a complicated Austronesian-typegrammar and many English-derived words. The children are begin-ning to learn it as their first language, starting the chain ofpotential endangerment. Also, only about 30 major languages areused in education and by the media, thereby reducing the impor-tance of many other, especially small, languages in the eyes of thelocals. The attitude of the government and authorities towards alllocal languages is positive, but that does not help very muchunder these circumstances. Of the estimated 240 Malayo-Polynesian languages of Papua New Guinea, about 35 are threat-ened and 3 extinct. Of about 580 Papuan languages there, over 40are threatened, and 13 extinct.

Solomon Islands (including the Santa Cruz Archipelago)In the Solomon Islands, the government and senior authorities,who are largely members of an English-educated élite, have a

rather negative attitude towards local languages, which is anobstacle for their maintenance. Large missionary and churchlanguages exercise a dominant influence over small locallanguages. The English-based lingua franca Tok Pijin also putspressure on small local languages. Of the 44 Malayo-Polynesianlanguages in the Solomon Islands, 12 are threatened and 2extinct. Of the 10 Papuan languages there, 1 is threatened and 3are extinct.

VanuatuMany years of English-French condominium status as the formerNew Hebridies did not help the many small languages of Vanuatu,and since independence, the English-based lingua franca Bislama,which is similar to the Tok Pisin of Papua New Guinea, has broughtincreasing pressure to bear on them. All of the about 110languages on Vanuatu are Malayo-Polynesian. Some 33 are threat-ened, and 3 recently became extinct.

New Caledonia and Loyalty IslandsIn New Caledonia, the French language, as a dominant metropol-itan language spoken by monolinguals, has had a devastatinginfluence on the maintenance of the local languages. Of the60,000 indiginous people, today, only some 20,000 or so still havea knowledge of one or several local languages. Since the strongawakening of ethnic-identity feeling among the local population acouple of decades ago, the language situation has been improving;also, the attitudes of the French authorities have softened, andthey have granted some concessions regarding other languages. Of


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the 33 Malayo-Polynesian languages there, 13 are threatened and2 recently became extinct, with one of these two being revived.

Fiji and RotumaThere are 2 Malayo-Polynesian languages here, both fully func-tioning.

MicronesiaThere are 22 Malayo-Polynesian Micronesian languages: 3 arethreatened, and 1 is extinct.

PolynesiaOf the Polynesian languages, Maori in New Zealand, Hawaiian onHawaii, and Rapanui on Easter Island became almost extinct sometime ago. All 3 have been revived and are functioning quite well,but their long-term future is not certain. The Tahitian language inthe Society Islands had been receding rapidly before French, espe-cially in the town of Papeete, the capital of French Polynesia, buthas recovered very strongly during the last decade, and is now inturn threatening other Polynesian languages in French Polynesia,especially Tuamotuan, and two languages in the Austral Islands,and is beginning to put pressure on Marquesan. There are 37Malayo-Polynesian Polynesian languages, of which seven to nineare regarded as threatened.

AustraliaAustralia has one of the worst records on language endangermentand extinction in the world. Until about 1970, very harsh assimila-tion policies were in vogue, especially the concentration ofspeakers of different Aboriginal language backgrounds in campswhere they could not continue to use their own languages.Children receiving education in standard Australian schools anddormitories were forbidden to use their languages. Long beforethis, Aborigines were dislocated through pastoral and agriculturalactivities by immigrant settlers, mining activities, and so on. Sincethe 1970s, there has been a complete turnabout towardsAborigines and their languages. In the north of Australia, wheresome languages were still functioning well, bilingual educationwas introduced (though this came under threat recently because ofthe attitude of the Northern Territory government), Aborigineshave been encouraged to maintain and reinvigorate theirlanguage, and a few extinct or near extinct languages have beenrevived. However, most of this has come too late. In the LanguageAtlas of the Pacific Area (Wurm and Hattori, 1981–83), well over ahundred Australian languages were indicated as having one to tensurviving speakers, but almost all are now extinct.

The original number of Australian languages is unclear. About 600different forms of Aboriginal languages have been identified forthe past and present, many of these, especially those known onlythrough scanty records from the past, are likely to be differentdialects of one language. It seems fair to suggest that there mayhave been around 400 or more Australian languages of which ahundred or so became extinct over half a century, if not a centuryor more ago. About 180 are known to have become recently or

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relatively recently extinct, about 120 are threatened at present –many of these are in a moribund state, and only about 25 are stillmore or less fully functioning.

A very large amount of work has been carried out on languages ofthe Greater Pacific Area, including threatened and now extinctones, in the respective countries, including Indonesia, but espe-cially at the Australian National University in Canberra and otherAustralian institutions. However, considering the enormousnumber of languages in this vast area, much work remains to bedone.

Africa

The approximately 1,400 (or more) languages of Africa have beenclassified in various ways. One fairly generally accepted classifi-cation defines four major groups of interrelated languages.

Afro-Asiatic: This group of about 200 or more languages with about175 million speakers occupies the greater part of northern Africa,including the eastern ‘horn’ of the continent, except for thecentral Sahara, and areas on the upper Nile. The well-knownSemitic languages belong to this group, of which Arabic, found onthe Arabian Peninsula as well, and ancient Egyptian. Thesouthernmost extension of the group is around Lake Chad. Well-known members of this group are Arabic (over 100 millionspeakers), Hausa in West Africa, Amharic, and Somali, both in EastAfrica.

Niger-Kordofanian: This very vast group covers most of thesouthern two-thirds of Africa except for a large area in the south-west. Its main branch is the Niger-Congo branch which containsmore than 1,000 languages with some 200 million speakers. Thewell-known Bantu languages of central, eastern and southernAfrica constitute a sub-group of the Niger-Congo branch. Theynumber about 500 and comprise more than 100 million speakers.Well-known Bantu languages are Swahili in East Africa and Shona,and Xhosa and Zulu in South Africa. The Niger-Kordofanian grouphas that name because another, though very small, main branch isconstituted by the Kordofanian languages. This group includesabout 30 languages with 300,000 speakers, spoken in the Sudan,isolated from the other main branch, the Niger-Congo, bylanguages of the Afro-Asiatic group, and the Nilo-Saharan groupmentioned below.

Nilo-Saharan: This group of about 140 or more languages, withperhaps 11 million speakers in widely scattered parts of Centraland East Africa, had been difficult to recognize because of theconsiderable differences between its members and their scatteredlocations. They are surrounded by either Afro-Asiatic or Niger-Congo languges. Well-known members of this group are Masai andNubian in East Africa.

Khoisan: This group of about 30 languages, with over 100,000speakers, is located in a large part of south-west Africa. Khoisanlanguages are likely to have originally been spoken throughoutmost of southern Africa. However, the southward expansion ofBantu speakers occupied much of their original area, and theimmigration of Dutch settlers from the south narrowed it down


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further. Two related languages are spoken in northern Tanzania –obviously remnant languages in mountainous country, from theearlier, much more widespread Khoisan language area. Today, mostKhoisan languages are found in South Africa, Namibia, Botswanaand Angola. The Hottentot and Bushman languages are well-known members of the Khoisan group. One renowned feature ofthe Khoisan languages is their use of ‘click’ sounds instead of ordi-nary stop consonants p, t and k. Many of the Khoisan languageshave become endangered by pressure from the large Bantulanguages – the speakers of some of which borrowed a few clicksounds into their own languages from Khoisan languages, so forinstance the Xhosa (Nelson Mandela’s language) languagespeakers (the Xh indicates a so-called lateral click articulation ofthe side of the tongue against the inner right side back molars,with an h-sound aspiration following).

The endangerment of African languages, especially small ones,results from the pressure exerted by large African languages. Thegovernments of most African countries favour large Africanlanguages, and have negative attitudes and language policiesagainst small ones. Some governments even favour the ex-colonial languages, especially English and Friench, and are againstthe use of any African language of their countries for officialpurposes.

The language endangerment and extinction situation in Africa isonly imperfectly and patchily known, because for quite a longtime, linguistic fieldworkers have been unable to make surveys inquite a few parts of Africa because of continuing warfare andunsafe conditions. This factor also adds significantly to language

endangerment and extinction of languages in some areas, as alsodo extended droughts and resulting famines in some areas.

The survey map of African language endangerment and extinctionin the Atlas is evidence of this patchiness of our knowledge. Itgives the location and status of 124 threatened languages(excluding potentially endangered ones) and a selection of 48extinct languages in Africa. Taking into account the number oflanguages in areas not surveyed recently to establish the numberof threatened and extinct languages, more than twice thesefigures may have to be assumed for them, i.e. about 250 threat-ened and 50 extinct, giving a total of well over 400. If potentiallyendangered languages were included, a total of at least 500–600would not be an unrealistic estimate.

A large amount of work on endangered African languages has beencarried out by linguists from outside Africa, mainly from Europe(e.g. from Germany), and also by linguists from institutions inAfrican countries. With the multiplicity of endangered languageson the African continent, a very extensive amount of work remainsto be done.

America

Arctic North America EastThis map in the Atlas gives information on the location and statusof the four threatened (and one extinct) forms of Inuit Eskimo innorth-eastern Arctic Canada, and also on the seven now extinctEskimo Pidgin languages in that area. The Eskimo languages

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belong to two different types: one very widespread type comprisesthe forms spoken in western, eastern and northern Greenland, andall the forms of Eskimo spoken in northern Canada, as well asthose in northern Alaska. From Greenland to the Mackenzie Deltain far north-western Canada, this form is known as Inuit Eskimo,and in northern Alaska as Inupiaq Eskimo. The local variations inthese areas are so closely related that Inuit Eskimos from one ofthem can understand much of what speakers of other local varia-tions say, especially when they speak about matters of everydayoccurrence. The other type is that of several Yupik Eskimolanguages in southern and western Alaska, in the Bering Strait andin the extreme western part of the Chukchi Peninsula. They are notmutually intelligible, nor are they mutually intelligible with InuitEskimo. They are shown on the Arctic North America West map.

There are still several fully functioning forms of Inuit Eskimo innorthern Canada. Attitudes and language policies in Canada were,until recently, negative for the Eskimo (and Amerindian). However,they have now changed for the better here and in other parts ofthe world. Endangerment and extinction of Eskimo languages inCanada were the result of pressure from English and French, and ofadverse attitudes and policies in the past. The Pidgin languagessimply fell into disuse and became extinct as a consequence.

Arctic North America West

This map gives information on the distribution and status of thethreatened Inuit Eskimo and Yupik Eskimo languages in westernCanada, Alaska and the extreme eastern part of the Chukchi

Peninsula across the Bering Strait. The Yupik Eskimo languagesinclude two closely related forms of Pacific Yupik in the south(Chugach and Koniag Eskimo), Central Alaskan Yupik, Bering StraitEskimo in the Nome area (Kotzebue Sound Eskimo further north isInuit), and Asiatic Eskimo on the Chukchi Peninsula. CentralSiberian Yupik in the south had two languages, the Provideniyalanguage and the Sirennitski language (which became extinct in1999 with the death of the last speaker). The northern language ofAsiatic Eskimo is Naukanski. The map also gives information on thelocation and status of Eastern and Western Aleut on the AleutIslands. Aleut is related to the Eskimo languages. The map alsogives information on the location and status of Amerindianlanguages in the interior of Alaska and a portion of north-westernCanada. All of these belong to the widespread Athabaskanlanguages, some of which, like Apache, are found as far south asthe United States and northern Mexico. The map also gives infor-mation on the location of former Eskimo Pidgins and tradelanguages in the area which it covers. All of these are now extinct.

Reasons and circumstances for the endangerment of Eskimo, Aleutand American Indian languages in the Canadian part of the mapare similar to those given for the Arctic North America East. Forthe Alaskan and Russian parts of the map, the reasons are similartoo, except that attitudes and policies of the United States relativeto indigenous languages have not improved much, save that theywere less harsh in Alaska than elsewhere in the country. Russianpolicies in the Chukchi Peninsula, and in Alaska under formerTsarist Russian rule, have also left their mark.


41

The Pidgin and trade languages on the map fell into disuse andeventually became extinct.

Work on some of the languages in danger has been carried out byAlaskan and Canadian linguists, and also by linguists from Europe(especially Denmark and the Netherlands), but much additionalwork is still needed.

CanadaOf the 121 Amerindian languages in Canada, only 6 (Naskapi,Attikamek or Tête-de-Boule-Cree, James Bay Cree or East Cree,Northern Plains Cree, Severn Ojibwe, and Montagnais) are stillfully functioning. Some 10 are extinct (their family membership isgiven in parentheses): Huron, Petun, Neutral, Erie, St. Laurence,Wenro or Wyandot (all Iroquoian), Beothuk (isolate), Pentlach,Tsetsaut (Salishan), and Nicola (Athabaskan). Of the mixedlanguages, Cree-Assiniboine is extinct. All the other Indianlanguages in Canada, a total of 104, are threatened to varyingdegrees, with 19 of these moribund, and 28 seriously endangered.Indian language families represented in Canada are the following(quite a few of them also present in the United States): Beothukfamily-level Isolate, Algonquian f., Iroquoian f., Siouan f.,Athabaskan (Na-Dene) f., Tlingit f.-Isolate, Kootenay f.-Isolate,Salishan f., Wakashan f., Tsimshian f., and Haida f.-Isolate. Thereasons for the extinction and endangerment of the Indianlanguages in Canada are the same as those given for Arctic NorthAmerica East and West, but it should be pointed out again thatattitudes and policies towards indigenous languages in Canadachanged from negative to positive a few years ago.

United StatesBefore the arrival of the Europeans, about 200 or more languagesare believed to have been spoken in what is now the United States,but many more may have disappeared without a trace. Today lessthan 150 remain, with all of them endangered to a varying extent,and many of them moribund. Even languages with many thousandsof speakers, such as Navajo, have hardly any children speakers,and it is believed that almost half the Navajos do not speak theirown language. As far as the family membership of Amerindianlanguages in the United States is concerned, quite a few of thefamilies mentioned in the text of Canada extend into, or have theirlargest part in, the United States, such as Algonquian f. (referredto as Algic family when including the Ritwan languages inCalifornia), Athabaskan f., Iroquoian f., Siouan f., Salishan f.,Wakashan f. and so on. Other families in the United States areMuskogean f., Caddoan f., Chimakuan f., Kiowa-Tanoan f., and Uto-Aztecan f. Some are quite small; for instance the Chimakuanfamily contains only two languages. There are also family-levelisolates, i.e. single languages constituting a family, for instanceZukogean f., Caddoan f., Chimakuan f., Kiowa-Tanoan f., and Uto-Aztecan f. Some are quite small; for instance the Chimakuat of theRocky Mountains, there are many more.

Reasons for the endangerment and extinction of languages in theUnited States are the same as those mentioned for Arctic NorthAmerica and Canada, except that for a long time, the treatment ofthe Indians and their languages was much harsher in mainlandUnited States than in Canada and Alaska, leading to the extinctionof a larger number of languages there. Although some reversals ofnegative attitudes and policies involving Indian languages were

42

observed in the 1970s in the United States, there was a backlashof conservatism and a strengthening of the ‘English only’ policiesin the 1980s that exacerbated the situation of the ongoing extinc-tion of Amerindian languages (Zepeda and Hill, 1991), and it isstill continuing unchecked.

Canadian and United States linguists, as well as linguists fromoutside America (especially the Netherlands and Denmark), haveworked very hard to study the dying languages in Canada and theUnited States, often with the last few speakers, but there are stilllanguages which have not been documented and are in urgentneed of study before they disappear completely.

Mexico

The history and situation of Amerindian languages in Mexico ischaracterized by a particularly high level of extinction. It is notknown how many languages existed here in the sixteenth centuryin the period before the conquest of what is now Mexico, and inthe area of the Mesoamerican culture which excludes a part ofnorthern Mexico and includes the areas of present-day Guatemala,Belize and El Salvador, and parts of Honduras, Nicaragua andCosta Rica in Central America. However, it is certain that theconquest of much of Mexico by the Aztecs preceding the invasionby the Spaniards, and the Spanish conquest itself, must have hada catastrophic effect on the language situation. Considering thatbetween 1519 and 1605, the Indian population of Mexico droppedfrom 25.3 million to 1 million (Garza Cuarón and Lastra, 1991), itis clear that this must have meant the death of many languages.

Work by Lastra has produced a list of 54 extinct languages whichcannot as yet be classified. In addition, another 65 extinctlanguages have been classified, giving a total of over 110 knownextinct languages. The extinction of languages continues today. Atleast two languages, Chiapanec (a member of the largeOtomanguean stock) and Cuitlatec have become extinct in Mexicosince the middle of the twentieth century, along with Mangue inNicaragua, Honduras and Costa Rica, a relative of Chiapanec.

The slightly less than 100 living or recently extinct languages inMexico belong to 15 different groups. Some of them are very large,with several subgroups and sections such as Uto-Aztecan to whichNahuatl, the important language of the Aztec, belongs. Other verylarge groups are the Otomanguean, to which the important Mixtecand Zapotekan languages belong, and the Mayan, to which theYucatán Maya and many other languages belong. Other groups aresmall to very small, some containing only one language each, suchas the Tarascan and Huave groups.

Quite a few Mexican languages are threatened, all because ofheavy pressure from other languages, mainly Spanish, whichaccompanies oppressive domination of a speech community byspeakers of another language. At least 14 small languages areknown to be seriously endangered or moribund, and four or fivelanguages with substantial numbers of speakers are also in dangerof disappearing. Official attempts have been made to stem the tideof disappearing languages.

Mexican linguists and others from the United States have carriedout studies on many Mexican languages, mainly large ones, and


43

there is still an urgent need for work on endangered smalllanguages and those that are dying.

Central and South AmericaThe linguistic situation here is similar to that in the rest of theAmericas. Many of the surviving languages have heavily reducednumbers of speakers. Others, which have large numbers ofspeakers, function well in some of their area, but are threatened inothers. Adverse economic and social conditions play a part in this,as well as pressure from Portuguese, Spanish and some largeindigenous languages. In some areas local Indians have developeda strong sense of local identity, which may contribute to thepreservation of their languages.

The two maps in this Atlas give a balanced sampling of the threat-ened and recently extinct languages in most of Central America,and in South America. A large Atlas of these languages in SouthAmerica is in an advanced stage of preparation as these lines arewritten (Wurm (ed.), Adelaar and Crevels, forthcoming).

South America is unusual in having a very large number oflanguage families and isolates (estimated to be just below 120),and a relatively small number of languages (Adelaar, 1991). Manyformer languages have disappeared with only their namesremaining, and whole populations were eliminated in easternBrazil, most of Argentina and in all of Uruguay. Epidemic diseases,violent acts of the European colonizers, slavery expeditions inBrazil, and racial and cultural intermixture favouring the Europeanelement have greatly reduced the number of languages.

Until the 1970s, South American governments and societies wereindifferent or hostile to Indian languages in their countries. Onlysince 1970 has there been a growing awareness at the nationallevels of the importance of indigenous cultural and linguisticheritage. In Peru and Bolivia the Indian languages were officiallyrecognized, bilingual education was attempted, and academicinterest and concern increased markedly.

Most of the languages still spoken today in South America, exceptin remote parts of the Amazon region, have received some scien-tific attention. The Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) hascarried out a series of studies of individual languages.

In Argentina, Indian languages survive today only in the north-west, north-east, south and south-west. There are none left in thecentral areas. In the north-west, there are forms of the largeQuechua language, in the north-east other language families, andin the south and south-west the Mapuches or Araucanians whoimmigrated from Chile. There are a few seriously endangered ormoribund languages. Surviving languages number about 14.

In Bolivia, the Quechua and Aymara languages dominate the high-lands. The situation in the lowlands is complicated, with a consid-erable number of isolates, and languages of other families, amongthem the large Tupi-Guaraní family. Indian languages in Bolivianumber about 35.

Brazil has the largest number of surviving Indian languages, i.e.about 170, with a total of about 155,000 speakers. Somewhatmore than this figure probably became extinct over the past five

44

centuries. The large groups of languages are the Tupi-Guaraní,Macro-Jê, Carib and Arawak, plus nine other, smaller families. Inaddition, there are ten language isolates.

Chile has one major language, Mapuche or Araucanian, with about200,000–300,000 speakers. Aymara is spoken in the north, whilein the south some small languages survive, such as Alakaluf orQawesqar in the south-west and Yahgan on the islands south ofTierra del Fuego. There are probably still six languages spoken inChile.

In Colombia, many languages have now disappeared, leavingbehind not much more than their names. Today the SIL is veryactive in Columbia, and the University of Los Andes in Bogotá hasestablished a research institute and project for producing descrip-tions of all indigenous languages in Colombia. The Indians of theColombian Andes have strong feelings of ethnicity and supportlanguage studies. In the south of Colombia, and in the forestsextending along its Pacific coast, there are quite a few Indianlanguages. In the north, Chibchan languages prevail. These arerelated to those in Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Quite a fewIndian languages are located in the eastern lowlands of Colombia.The large Arawak family is represented, as are others. TheColumbian Amazon region shows a complex linguistic picture.Many of the languages belong to the Tucanoan family. The totalnumber of languages in Colombia is around 65.

Ecuador has one of the highest percentages of Indian populationin South America. Most of these speak Quichua, a form of the largeQuechua language found in the Andean countries south of

Ecuador. It has expanded and replaced many local languages. Ineastern Ecuador, there are languages of several different families.In the southern part, the languages of the Jivaroan family arefound. The number of Indian languages in Ecuador is 12.

French Guiana has six languages. They belong to the Cariban,Arawakan and Tupian groups.

Guyana has ten living languages, belonging to the Arawakan andCariban groups.

In Paraguay, the Paraguayan Guaraní language is spoken by mostParaguayans. In eastern Paraguay, all minority groups speak aTupi-Guaraní language or a dialect of Guaraní. In the Gran Chacoregion of Paraguay, there are four different language groups, andalso two Tupi-Guaraní languages. There are 14 Indian languages inParaguay.

Peru, like Bolivia and Ecuador, has an Indian population of severalmillion, mainly in the Andean highlands. The eastern lowlands ofPeru and the foothills have the largest tribal population of anySouth American country (200,000–221,000). Quechua and Aymaraare the largest languages in the Andean highlands. Quechuaconsists of two languages, central Peruvian and non-centralPeruvian; these are not simply dialects. The number of Quechuaspeakers in Peru is about 4,400,000. The centre and south of thePeruvian eastern lowland is inhabited mainly by speakers of theArawakan and Panoan language families. In the northern half ofthe Peruvian lowland, there are several language isolates andsmall families. Along the Colombian border, there are speakers of


45

46the Tucanoan and a few other language groups. The number ofIndian languages in Peru is between 50 and 60.

In Surinam, the coastal languages are Arawakan or Cariban. In theinterior, the languages are Cariban. There are five Indianlanguages in Surinam.

In Venezuela, Indian languages have mainly been preserved in thesouth, the Amacuro Delta of the Orinoco River, and in the area tothe west of Lake Maracaibo. In the south, there are Caribanlanguages, and those of other groups. In the Amazonas area, fourlanguages of the Yamomami family are located. Several languageisolates are also found in the south. In the Amacuro Delta, there ismainly a large isolate language. To the west of Lake Maracaibo,there are Arawakan and Cariban languages. The number of Indian

languages in Venezuela is 38. Many Central American languagesbelong to the Chibchan group. There are several isolate languages.

The original languages of the Caribbean Islands are now allextinct.

The total number of surviving languages in South America is 375,many of which are threatened, and a good proportion of them aremoribund.

As pointed out above, extensive studies have been made of SouthAmerican Indian languages by South American, American andEuropean (e.g. Dutch and French) linguists. However, much stillremains to be done, especially concerning moribund isolatelanguages.


47Select bibliography

ADELAAR, W. F. H. 1991. The Endangered Languages Problem: SouthAmerica. In: R. H. Robins and E. M. Uhlenbeck (eds.), EndangeredLanguages, pp. 45–91. Oxford, Berg Publishers.

BRADLEY, D. (ed.). 2001. Language Endangerment and LanguageMaintenance: An Active Approach. London, Curzon Press.

BRENZINGER, M. (ed.). 2001. Language Diversity Endangered. Berlin,Mouton de Gruyter.

Comité International Permanent des Linguistes (CIPL), under theauspices of the Conseil International de la Philosophie et desSciences Humaines (CIPSH). Linguistic Bibliography for theYear/Bibliographie linguistique de l’année. M. Janse and S. Tol(eds.). Martinus Nijhoff. (Annual publication.)

GARZA CUARÓN, B.; LASTRA, Y. 1991. Endangered Languages in Mexico.In: R. H. Robins and E. M. Uhlenbeck (eds.), EndangeredLanguages, pp. 93–134.

MATZUMURA, K. (ed.). 1998. Studies in Endangered Languages. Tokyo,Hituzi Syobo. (ICHEL Linguistic Studies, Vol. 1.)

Materials on Languages in Danger of Disappearing in the Asia-PacificRegion, 1. 1997. S. A. Wurm (ed.), Some Endangered Languages of

48Papua New Guinea: Kaki Ae, Musom, and Aribwatsa. Canberra.(Pacific Linguistics, Series D-89.)

MOSELEY, C. (ed.). Encyclopedia of the Endangered Languages of theWorld. London, Curzon Press. (Forthcoming.)

ROBINS, R. H.; UHLENBECK, E. M. (eds.). 1991. Endangered Languages.Oxford, Berg Publishers. (Diogenes Library, No. 1.)

SCHMIDT, A. 1990. The Loss of Australia’s Aboriginal LanguageHeritage. Canberra, Aboriginal Studies Press.

SHOJI, H.; JANHUNEN, J. (eds.). 1997. Northern Minority Languages:Problems of Survival. Suita, Osaka, National Museum of Ethnology.(Senri Ethnological Studies, No. 44.)

WURM, S. A. 1997. Prospects of Language Preservation in theNorth. In: H. Shoji and J. Janhunen (eds.), Northern MinorityLanguages, op. cit., pp. 35–53.

——. Atlas of Endangered Languages in the Greater PacificArea.(Forthcoming.)

WURM, S. A.; HATTORI, S. 1981-83. Language Atlas of the Pacific Area.Canberra. Australian Academy of the Humanities in colla-boration with the Japan Academy. (Also as Pacific Linguistics, Series C-66, 67.)

WURM, S. A.; MÜHLHÄUSLER, P.; TRYON, D. T. (eds.). 1996. Atlas ofLanguages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, andthe Americas. 3 vols. Berlin, Mouton de Gruyter.

WURM, S. A. (ed.); ADELAAR, W.; CREVELS, M. Atlas of EndangeredLanguages in Latin America. London, Curzon Press. (Forthcoming.)

ZEPEDA, O.; HILL, J. H. 1991. The Condition of Native American Lan-guages in the United States. In: R. H. Robin and E. M. Uhlenbeck(eds.), Endangered Languages, pp. 135–55. Oxford, BergPublishers.


49

Symbols used on the maps to indicate the degree of endangerment of language

∆ Potentially endangered language: decreasing numbers of children learn the language (green)

° Endangered language: the youngest speakers are young adults (red)

• Seriously endangered language: the youngest speakershave reached or passed middle age (red)

⊕ Moribund language: only a few elderly speakers are left (blue)

+ Extinct language: no speakers are left (black)

50

Potentially endangeredlanguageBelorussian, Catalan, Tatar

Endangered languageIt. Alpine Provençal,Aragonese, Aromanian,Asturian, Bashkir, Sp. Basque,Campidanese, Chuvash,Corsican, Eastern Mari,Emilian, Erzya, Faetar,It. Francoprovençal, Friulian,Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic,Galician, Gallurese,Sp. Gascon, Kalmyk, Karelian,Komi, Ladin, Ligurian,Logudorese, Lombard, LowSaxon, Lower Sorbian,Moksha, Moldavian Gagauz,Nogai, North Sámi,Olonetsian, Permyak,Piedmontese, Romagnol,Romansch, Romani, Rusyn,Sardinian, Sassarese, Scots,Udmurt, Upper Sorbian,Voivodena Rusyn, Walloon,Welsh, Western Frisian

Seriously endangeredlanguageFr. Alpine Provençal,Auvergnat, Fr. Basque, Breton, Channel Islands French,Crimean Tatar, Cypriot Arabic,Eastern Frisian,Fr. Francoprovençal, Gagauz,Gallo, Gardiol, Fr. Gascon,Inari Sámi, Ingrian, Istriot,Istroromanian, LithuanianKaraim, Kashubian, Kildin Sámi, Languedocian,Leonese, Limousin, Ludian, Lule Sámi,Meglenoromanian, Norman, Northern Frisian,Picard, Plautdeitsch, Poitevin-Saintongeais,Provençal, Skolt Sámi, South Sámi, Tsakonian,Vepsian, Western Mari, Yiddish

Moribund languageAkkala Sámi, Livonian, Pite Sámi, Ter Sámi, Ume Sámi, Votian

Probably extinct languageItalkian, Eastern Ukranian Karaim

Extinct languageCornish, Dalmatian, Gothic, Inorn, Crimean (Uk.) Karaim, Kemi Sámi, Manx, Mozarabic,Old Prussian, Polabian,Slovincian

(Not shown on map)

Endangerment status unclearDalecarlian, Extremaduran,Latgalian, Scanian, Vöru Estonian

Languages that are varieties of larger, non-endangered orpotentially endangeredlanguagesAlbanian, Angloromani,Croatian, Algherese Catalan, Csángó Hungarian, Oïl languages (Champenois,Lorrain), Germanic-Italian(Cimbrian, Mócheno, Walser),Resian Slovene, Trukhmen

Extinct or nearly-extinctJewish languagesKrimchak, Shuadit, Yevancic,Zarphatic

Europe

Click here to view map

51

Potentially endangeredlanguageDolgan, Eastern Buryat, Yakut

Endangered languageKhakas, Siberian Tatar, Tundra Nenets, Mongol [south-western Khamnigan]

Seriously endangeredlanguageAltai, Alyutor, ChuckcheeProper, Ewen, Ewenki, ForestNenets, Hokkaido Ainu,Kamchatka Ewen, Ket,Khanty, Koryak, Nanay,Nganasan, Sakhalin Evenki,Sakhalin Nivkh, Selkup, Shor,Teleut, Tundra Nenets,Western Buryat

Moribund languageAmur Nivkh, Chulym, ForestEnets, Forest Yukagir, Hejen,Hokkaido Ainu, ItelmenProper, Kerek, KhamniganMongol, Khanty, Mansi,Negidal, Oroch, Orok, Selkup,Tofa, Tundra Enets, TundraYukagir, Udege, Ulcha, Yug

Extinct languageArman, Chuvan, EasternKamchadal, Kamas,Khamnigan Mongol, Kott, KurilAinu, Mator, Sakhalin Ainu,Southern Kamchadal, TundraNenets, Yurats

Siberia


http://upo.unesco.org/x_pdf/languages_maps/02_Siberia.pdf

52

Potentially endangeredlanguageDagur (Hailar), EasternChinese Buryat or Buriat,western Solon

Endangered languageDagur (Nonni), Dagur(Qiqihar), Khamnigan Ewenki,Khamnigan Mongol

Seriously endangeredlanguageNew Bargut, Ewenki Proper,eastern Solon, Old Bargut

Moribund languageDagur (Amur), Manchu,Manchu (Amur), ManchurianKirghiz (Fu Yü), ManchurianÖlöt, Orochen, Orochen

Extinct languageManchu, Udege (Qiakala)

North-east China


http://upo.unesco.org/x_pdf/languages_maps/03_China.pdf

53

Potentially endangeredlanguageAhom, Chantel,Chaudangsi/Byangsi, Darmiya,Lumba, Rohani

Endangered languageDhimal, Dumi, Dura, Lepcha,Tilung, Toto

Seriously endangeredlanguageChintang, Hayu

Moribund languageBungla, Rangkhas, Saam

Extinct languageBhramu, Tolcha

Himalayan Chain


http://upo.unesco.org/x_pdf/languages_maps/04_Himalayan.pdf

54

Potentially endangeredlanguageArem, Bana, Bit, Chawte,Gazhuo, Hung, Kathu, Lachi,Laha, Lalo, Lamgang,Langrong, Lavua, Mang, May,Mayol, Mlabri, Mpi, Pakatan,Phonsung, Ruc, Sach, Sak,Sila, Tanglang, Tha Vung,Zaozou

Endangered languageBisu, Lai, Pupeo, Laomian,Kadu, Ganan, Taman, Aiton,Phake

Seriously endangeredlanguageGelao, Ayizi, Samei, Samatau,Sanyi, Idu, Khamyang, Lamu

Moribund languageDanan, Hpun, Phalok,Purum

Extinct languageKolhreng, Sengmai/Sekmai,Andro/Phayeng, Tarao,Chairel/Chakpa, Aimol, Pyu,Malin, Ahom

South East Asia


http://upo.unesco.org/x_pdf/languages_maps/05_S_Asia.pdf

55Pacific, General Overview


http://upo.unesco.org/x_pdf/languages_maps/06_Pacific.pdf

56

Potentially endangeredlanguageAnindilyakwa, Arrente,Dhangu Dialects, Djinang,Gunwinggu, Gupapuyngu,Gurindji, Iwaidja, Kala LagawYa, Kuku Yalanji, Maung,Meriam Mir, Ngankikurungkurr,Ngarinman, Nunggubuyu,Nyangumarta, Ritarungo, Tiwi,Warlpiri, Western Desert, E.,Western Desert, W., WikMungkan

Endangered languageAdnyamathanha, Baadi,Bunaba, Garawa, Guguyimidjir,Kitja, Kuuku Ya'u, Marithiel,Nakara, Narluma, Ngarinman,Ngarinyin, Nyamal,Rembarrunga, Walmajarri,Wardaman, Warumungu, WikNgathana, Yanyuwa, Yeidji

Seriously endangeredlanguageAlawa, Antakarinya, Boodi,Bunaba, Djamindjung,Gugubera, Gunian, Guragone,Jawony, Kunbarlang, Kunjen,Kurrama, Mangarayi,Maringarr, Miriwoong,Mudbura, Ngalkbun, Nyamal,Nyigina, Panytyima, Umpila,Wageman, Wanman,Wardaman, Watjarri, WikNgenchera, Worrorra, Yeidji,Yir Yoront

Moribund languageAntakarinya, Badala,Banjalang, Dhargari, Djingili,Duungidjawu, Dyirbal,Gadjerawang, Gagadu,Gangalida (Yukulta),Guragone, Gurdjar, Karajarri,Kayardild, Lardil, Madngele,Mangarla, Maridjabin, Marrgu,Miriwoong, Mullukmulluk,Ngalakan, Ngaliwuru, Ngandi,Ngardi, Ngarla, Ngarla,Waanyi, Wambaya,Wangaaybuwan-Nyiya,Wiradhuri, Wunambal

Australia


http://upo.unesco.org/x_pdf/languages_maps/07_Australia.pdf

57

Endangered languageAhlo, Alagwa, Amba, Baga,Baga Fore, Baiso, Binari,Bondei, Boni, Bowili,Burunge, Dahalo, Dimme, ElHugeirat, Gana, Ganjule,Gats'ame, Hadza, Haro,Kamdang, Karko, Kumam,Kupto, Laro, Logba, Nayi(Na'o), Ndungo, Nyango-Tafi,Obulom, Pajade (Badiar),Phuthi, Poko, Rugungu,Santrokofi, Sarwa, So, Suba,Viri, Yahuma, Zaramo, Zay(Zway)

Seriously endangeredlanguageAceron (Guärme), Animere,Aougila, Arzew, B. Snous,Birri, Bongo, Bong'om, Buga,Dahlik, Defaka, Deleny(Dilling), Dongo-Ko, Duli,Ebang, Eliri, Fyam, Homa,Ilue, Jala, Jeri, Ju, Kamdang,Kanga, Katcha, Kazibati,Keiga, Kidie Lafafa, Kiong,Kotoko De Koosseri, Kubi,Kufa, Kwegu-Mugudi, LereCluster (Gana, Simiri, Takaya),Lumun/Lomon, Luri, Maslam(Maltam), Mbara, Mmani(Bul(l)on), Muuke, Nagumi,Nalu, Ngbinda, Ngwaba,Njerep, Okorogbana, 'Ongota(Birale), Pana, Qemant,Shabo, Shiki, Siwa, Somyer,Tenet, Terik, Thuri, Twendi(Cambap)

Moribund languageAkei, Argobba, Bati, Baldamu,Beeke, Bete, Birgid, Bubbure,Buy, Camo, Deti, Fali ofBaissa, Fam, Fumu, Gri, Gule,Gweno, Holma, I'anni, Kaande,+Khomani, Korana, Kudu,Kwadi, Kwisi, Li-Ngbee,Mbaru, Ndai, Nyang'i, Odut,Omo Murle, Omotik, Ongamo,!Ora, Shan, Sheni, Sogoo,Undu Rishi, Yangkam, Ziriya

Extinct languageAasax, Ajawa, Anfillo,Anyokawa, Baga Tsitemu,Basa-Gumna, Basa-Kontagora,Boro, Bung, Cena, Coptic,Elmolo, Gafat, Gey, Guanchen,Gwara, Hamba, Iing, Iixegwi,Isuwu, Ixam, Jebel Haraza,Kalum (ex) Sorbane?, Kasabe(Luo), Kinare, Kore, Kw'adza,Kwankwa, Lorkoti, Mindari(dialect of Timme), Mo'e,Napore, Ngong, Njanga,Oropom, Qwarenya (emigra-tion to Israel in 1991), Ruhu,Segeju, Shiranci, Tonjon(dialect of Jeri), Yaaku,Zumaya

Africa


http://upo.unesco.org/x_pdf/languages_maps/08_Africa.pdf

58

Potentially endangeredlanguageAlagwa, Bondei, Boni,Burunge, Kumam, Zaramo

Endangered languageAmba, Burji, Dahalo, Hadza, Omo-Murle, Rugungu, Tenet

Seriously endangeredlanguageBong'om, Kwegu, Omo-Murle,So, Suba, Terik

Moribund languageAkie, Gweno, Nyang'i,Ongamo, Sogoo, Suba

Extinct languageAasax, Elmolo, Hamba, Kinare,Kore, Kw'adza, Lorkoti,Napore, Omotik, Oropom,Segeju, Suba, Yaaku

East Africa


http://upo.unesco.org/x_pdf/languages_maps/09_East_Africa.pdf

59

Potentially endangeredlanguageArctic Quebec Inuit, BaffinLand Inuit, Caribou Eskimos,East Greenlanders (2 locations), Iglulik Eskimos,Netsilik Eskimos, PolarEskimos, West Greelanders

Endangered languageCopper Eskimos, EastGreenlanders, Labrador Inuit,Mackenzie Delta Eskimos,Netsilik Eskimos, PolarEskimos

Seriously endangeredlanguageMac. Delta Eskimos

Extinct languageEskimo – Danish Pidgin,Eskimo Pidgin used by theNetsilik Eskimos, Eskimo-Cree/Montagnais Indian/Eskimo-English Contact Pidgin, Eskimo-English of NorthernQuebec, Eskimo-French Pidginin Labrador, Eskimo-Gwich'in(Loucheux) Indian ContactPidgin, Northeast Greenlandic,Sallirmuit, West GreelandicEskimo – Germanic Pidgin

Arctic North America East


http://upo.unesco.org/x_pdf/languages_maps/10_Arctic_nAe.pdf

60

Potentially endangeredlanguageKotzebue Sound Eskimo, Central Alaskan Yupik

Endangered languageAleut, Asiatic Eskimo, BeringStrait Eskimo includingQawiaraq, Central AlaskanYupik, Central Siberian Yupik,Chugach Eskimo, EasternAleut, Gwich'in, KodiakEskimo, Kotzebue SoundEskimo including Malimiut,Mackenzie Delta Inuit, NorthSlope Inupiaq

Seriously endangeredlanguageAleut, Ahtna, Bering StraitEskimo including Qawiaraq,Eastern Aleut, Holikachuk,Ingalik, Kolchan or UpperKuskokwim, Kodiak Eskimo,Koyukon, Mackenzie DeltaInuit, Naukanski, PacificYupik, Tanacross, Tanaina,Tanana, Upper Tanana

Moribund languageAleut, Eyak, Han, WesternAleut

Extinct languageCentral Siberian Yupik Pidgin,Eskimo-Athabaskan SignLanguage, Eskimo-AthabaskanTrade Language also IndianRussian Contacts, Eskimo-Chukchi-English ContactPidgin, Eskimo-EnglishHerschel Is. Trade Jargon,Eskimo-English Trade Jargon(Yukon Delta), Eskimo-Gwich'in (Loucheux) IndianContact Pidgin, Indian-RusianContacts, Kotzebue EskimoPidgin, Sirenikski

Arctic North America West


http://upo.unesco.org/x_pdf/languages_maps/11_Arctic_nAw.pdf

61

Potentially endangeredlanguageAlgonquin, Chipewyan, EastSwampy Cree, Malliseet,Micmac, Moose Cree, NorthernPlains Cree, NorthwesternOjibwe, West Swampy Cree,Woods Cree/Rock Cree

Endangered languageBlackfoot, Carrier, CentralOjibwe, Chilcotin, CoastTsimshian, Dogrib, EasternOjibwe, Halkomelem, Heiltsuk,Kwakiutl, Mohawk, Mountain,Nass-Gitksan, Nootka, NorthSlavey, Northern Tutchone,Ottawa Ojibwe, Saulteaux,Shuswap, South Slavey,Southern Tutchone, Tlingit

Seriously endangeredlanguageAssiniboine, Beaver, BellaCoola, Cayuga, Comox, Dakota,Hare, Haisla, Inland Tlingit,Kaskar, Kutenai, Lillooet,Okanagan, Oneida, Onondaga,Potawatomi, Sekani, SliammonComox, Southeastern PlainsCree, Stoney, Tahltan,Thompson

Moribund languageBungee, Chinook Jargon,Haida, Lakota, Michif, MunseeDelaware, Nitinaht, Sarcee,Sechelt, Seneca, SouthernTsimshian, Squamish, StraitsSalish, Tagish, Tuscarora,Western Abnaki

Extinct languageBeothuk, Cree-Assiniboine,Eastern Abenaki, Erie, Huron,Neutral, Nicola, Nooksack,Pentlatch, Plateau SignLanguage, St LawrenceIroquoian, Tsetsaut, UnamiDelaware, Wenro

Canada and part of USA


http://upo.unesco.org/x_pdf/languages_maps/12_Canada.pdf

62

Potentially endangeredlanguageAruaco, Cogui, Cuna, Embera,Garífuna, Guajiro, Guaymi,Hiwi, Hodi, Miskito, Oayana,Patamona, Pume, Sumo, Trio,Waiwai, Wapishana, Waunana,Yukpa

Endangered languageBari, Bribri, Jicaque,Kurripako, Piapoko, Tunebo,Yanomamï

Seriously endangeredlanguageAchagua, Akawaio, Baniwa,Carijona, Chimila, Emerillon,Guatuso, Kari'ña, Lokono,Palikur, Paya, Pipil, Rama,Yeral

Moribund languageAñu, Baré, Boruca, Kuiva,Mako, Opon-Carare, Puinave,Saliba, Sape, Tinigua, Uruak,Warekena, Xinca, Yawarana

Extinct languageIsland Carib, Matagalpa,Muysca, Wanai, Duit, Lenca

Central America


http://upo.unesco.org/x_pdf/languages_maps/13_Central_A.pdf

63

Endangered languageAchuar, Andoke, Camsá,Candoshi-Shapra, Cayapa,Chipaya, Chiquitano,Chiriguano, Chorote, CintaLarga, Colorado, Cuaiquer,Fulniô, Gavião, Guambiano,Harakmbut, Huitoto, Jaqaru,Kiangang, Maká, Mapuche,Maxakali, Mocoví, Mosetén,Páez, Pilagá, Secoya, Shipibo-Conibo, Suruí, Toba, Wari,Yuracaré

Seriously endangeredlanguageAikana, Arabela, Arikapu,Arua, Aweti, Ayuru, Barasána,Carijona, Cocama-Cocamilla,Galibi De Oiapoque, Huilliche,Jebero, Jurití, Karapanã,Kararaô, Karitiana, Katukina,Krenjê, Kwaza, Latundê,Lengua, Makurap, Matipu,Mekens, Mirití, Movima, Ofayé,Panará, Qawasqar, Shikuyana,Tapayuna, Trumai, Yuki

Moribund languageAkutsu, Arikapu, Atacameño,Awakê, Baré, Botocudo,Callahuaya, Canichana,Cayuvava, Chamicuro, Diahói,Guató, Itonama, Kanoê,Karipuna, Katawixi, Juma,Leco, Máku, Munichi, Omagua,Oro Win, Puruborá, Resígaro,Salamãi, Suriána, Taushiro,Tehuelche, Tinigua, Xetá,Yahgan, Záparo

Extinct languageAtacameño, Apolista, Choló,Culle, Gününa Küne, Mochica,Ona, Pataxo, Pijao, Puquina,Uru, Vilela

South America


http://upo.unesco.org/x_pdf/languages_maps/14_South_A.pdf

64

Aasax, +, 57; 58Abenaki, Eastern, +, 61Abenaki, Western, ⊕ , 61Aceron (Guärme), • , 57Achagua, • , 62Achuar, °, 63Adnyamathanha, °/• , 56Ahlo, °, 57

Ahom, ∆, 53; +, 54Ahtna, • , 75Aikana, • , 63Aimol, +, 54Ainu, eastern Hokkaido, ⊕ , 51Ainu, Kuril, +, 51Ainu, Sakhalin, +, 51Ainu, western Hokkaido, • , 51

Aiton, °, 54Ajawa, +, 57Akawaio, • , 62Akei, ⊕ , 57; 58Akutsu, ⊕ , 63Alagwa, °, 57; ∆, 58Alawa, • , 56Albanian, 50Aleut, Eastern, °/• , 75Aleut, °/• , 75Aleut, Western, ⊕ , 75Algonquin, ∆, 61Alpine Provençal, French, • , 50Alpine Provençal, Italian, °, 50Altai, • , 51Alyutor, • , 51Amba, °, 57; 58Andoke, °, 63Andro/Phayeng, +, 54Anfillo, +, 57Angloromani, 50Animere, • , 57Anindilyakwa, ∆, 56Antakarinya, ⊕/ • , 56Añu, ⊕ , 62

Anyokawa, +, 57Aougila, • , 57Apolista, +, 63Arabela, • , 63Arabic, Cypriot, • , 50Aragonese, °, 50Arem, ∆, 54Argobba, ⊕ , 57Arikapu, • /⊕ , 63Arman, +, 51Aromanian, °, 50Arrente, ∆, 56Arua, • , 63Aruaco, ∆, 62Arzew, • , 57Assiniboine, • , 61Asturian, °, 50Atacameño, +, 63Auvergnat, • , 50Awakê, ⊕ , 63Aweti, • , 63Ayizi, • , 54Ayuru, • , 63B. Snous, • , 57Baadi, °/• , 56

IndexAlphabetical list of the languages represented on the maps

The languages mentioned from pp. 54–81 are listed here inalphabetical order. They are followed by the symbol indicatingtheir degree of endangerment and the page number(s) of thecorresponding map(s). Certain European languages, notrepresented on a map, are followed simply by a page number;their endangerment status is explained briefly on p. 54.

Examples:Dahalo, °, 69; 71Dahlik, • , 69Dakota, • , 77Dalecarlian, 54

Dahalo appears on two different maps; Dalecarlian is not shownon a map, but is listed on p. 54.

65Badala, ⊕/ +, 56Baga Fore, °, 57Baga Tsitemu, +, 57Baga, °, 57Baiso, °, 57Baldamu, ⊕ , 57Bana, ∆, 54Baniwa, • , 62Banjalang, ⊕ , 56Barasána, • , 63Baré, ⊕ , 62; 63Bari, °, 62Basa-Gumna, +, 57Basa-Kontagora, +, 57Bashkir, °, 50Basque, French, • , 50Basque, Spanish, °, 50Bati, ⊕ , 57Beaver, • , 61Beeke, ⊕ , 57Bella Coola, • , 61Belorussian, ∆, 50Beothuk, +, 61Bete, ⊕ , 57Bhramu, +, 53Binari, °, 57Birgid, ⊕ , 57Birri, • , 57Bisu, °, 54Bit, ∆, 54

Blackfoot, °, 61Bondei, °, 57; ∆, 58Bongo, • , 57Bong'om, • , 57; 58Boni, °, 57; ∆, 58Boro, +, 57Boruca, ⊕ , 62Botocudo, ⊕ , 63Bowili, °, 57Breton, • , 50Bribri, °, 62Bubbure, ⊕ , 57Buga, • , 57Bunaba, °/• , 56Bung, +, 57Bungee, ⊕ , 61Bungla, ⊕ , 53Buriat (also Buryat), Eastern,

in China, ∆, 52Burji, °, 58Burunge, °, 57; ∆, 58Buryat (also Buriat),

Eastern, ∆, 51Buryat (also Buriat),

Western, • , 51Buy, ⊕ , 57Callahuaya, ⊕ , 63Camo, ⊕ , 57Campidanese, °, 50Camsá, °, 63

Candoshi-Shapra, °, 63Canichana, ⊕ , 63Carijona, • , 62; 63Carrier, °, 61Catalan, ∆, 50Catalan, Algherese, 50Cayapa, °, 63Cayuga, • , 61Cayuvava, ⊕ , 63Cena, +, 57Chairel/Chakpa, +, 54Chamicuro, ⊕ , 63Chantel, ∆, 53Chaudangsi/Byangsi, ∆, 53Chawte, ∆, 54Chilcotin, °, 61Chimila, • , 62Chintang, • , 53Chipaya, °, 63Chipewyan, ∆, 61Chiquitano, °, 63Chiriguano, °, 63Choló, +, 63Chorote, °, 63Chuckchee Proper, • , 51Chulym, ⊕ , 51Chuvan, +, 51Chuvash, °, 50Cinta Larga, °, 63Cocama-Cocamilla, • , 63

Cogui, ∆, 62Colorado, °, 63Comox, • , 61Comox, Sliammon, • , 61Coptic, +, 57Cornish, +, 50Corsican, °, 50Cree, East Swampy, ∆, 61Cree, Moose, ∆, 61Cree, Northern Plains, ∆, 61Cree, Southeastern Plains,• ,61Cree, Southeastern Plains,• ,61Cree, West Swampy, ∆, 61Cree, Woods/Rock, ∆, 61Cree-Assiniboine, +, 61Croatian, 50Cuaiquer, °, 63Culle, +, 63Cuna, ∆, 62Dagur, Amur, ⊕ , 52Dagur, Hailar, ∆, 52Dagur, Nonni, °, 52Dagur, Qiqihar, °, 52Dahalo, °, 57; 58Dahlik, • , 57Dakota, • , 61Dalecarlian, 50Dalmatian, +, 50Danan, ⊕ , 54Darmiya, ∆, 53

66Defaka, • , 57Delaware, Munsee, ⊕ , 61Delaware, Unami, +, 61Deleny (Dilling), • , 57Deti, ⊕ , 57Dhangu Dialects, ∆, 56Dhargari, ⊕ , 56Dhimal, °, 53Diahói, ⊕ , 63Dimme, °, 57Djamindjung, • , 56Djinang, ∆, 56Djingili, ⊕ , 56Dogrib, °, 61Dongo-Ko, • , 57Duit, +, 62Duli, • , 57Dumi, °, 53Dura, °, 53Duungidjawu, ⊕/ +, 56Dyirbal, ⊕ , 56Ebang, • , 57El Hugeirat, °, 57Eliri, • , 57Elmolo, +, 57; 58Embera, ∆, 62Emerillon, • , 62Emilian, °, 50Enets, Forest, ⊕ , 51Enets, Tundra, ⊕ , 51

Erie, +, 61Erzya, °, 50Eskimo Pidgin used by the

Netsilik Eskimos, +, 59Eskimo, Asiatic, °, 75Eskimo, Bering Strait including

Qawiaraq, °/• , 75Eskimo, Caribou, ∆, 59Eskimo, Chugach, °, 75Eskimo, Copper, °, 59Eskimo, Iglulik, ∆, 59Eskimo, Kodiak, °/• , 75Eskimo, Kotzebue Sound,

including Malimiut, ∆/°, 75

Eskimo, Mackenzie Delta,

°/• , 59Eskimo, Polar, ∆/°, 59Eskimo-Athabaskan

Sign Language, +, 75Eskimo-Athabaskan

Trade Language, also Indian-RussianContacts, +, 75

Eskimo-English Herschel Is.Trade Jargon, +, 75

Eskimo-English of NorthernQuebec, +, 59

Eskimo-English Trade Jargon(Yukon Delta), +, 75

Estonian, Vöru, 50Ewen, • , 51Ewen, Kamchatka, • , 51Ewenki Proper, • , 52Ewenki, • , 51Ewenki, Khamnigan, °, 52Ewenki, Sakhalin, • , 51Extremaduran, 50Eyak, ⊕ , 75Faetar, °, 50Fali of Baissa, ⊕ , 57Fam, ⊕ , 57Francoprovençal, French, • , 50Francoprovençal, Italian, °, 50French, Channel Islands, • , 50Frisian, Eastern, • , 50Frisian, Northern, • , 50Frisian, Western, °, 50Friulian, °, 50Fulniô, °, 63Fumu, ⊕ , 57Fyam, • , 57Gadjerawang, ⊕ , 56Gaelic, Irish, °, 50Gaelic, Scottish, °, 50Gafat, +, 57Gagadu, ⊕ , 56Gagauz,Eastern Bulgarian,• ,50Gagauz, Macedonian, • , 50Gagauz, Turkish, • , 50

Gagauz, Western Bulgarian, • , 50

Gaguaz, Moldavian, °, 50Galibi De • , 63Galician, °, 50Gallo, • , 50Gallurese, °, 50Gana (Lere Cluster), • , 57Gana, °, 57Ganan, °, 54Gangalida (Yukulta), ⊕ , 56Ganjule, °, 57Garawa, °, 56Gardiol, • , 50Garífuna, ∆, 62Gascon, French, • , 50Gascon, Spanish, °, 50Gats'ame, °, 57Gavião, °, 63Gazhuo, ∆, 54Gelao, • , 54Germanic-Italian (Cimbrian,

Mócheno, Walser), 50Gey, +, 57Gothic, +, 50Greenlanders, East, ∆/°, 59Greenlanders, West, ∆, 59Greenlandic, North Slope, +, 59Gri, ⊕ , 57Guajiro, ∆, 62

67Guambiano, °, 63Guanchen (Guanchi), +, 57Guató, ⊕ , 63Guatuso, • , 62Guaymi, ∆, 62Gugubera, • , 56Guguyimidjir, °, 56Gule, ⊕ , 57Gunian, • , 56Gününa Küne, +, 63Gunwinggu, ∆, 56Gupapuyngu, ∆, 56Guragone, ⊕/ • , 56Gurdjar, ⊕ , 56Gurindji, ∆, 56Gwara, +, 57Gweno, ⊕ , 57; 58Gwich'in, °, 75Hadza, °, 57; 58Haida, ⊕ , 61Haisla, • , 61Halkomelem, °, 61Hamba, +, 57; 58Han, ⊕ , 75Harakmbut, °, 63Hare, • , 61Haro, °, 57Hayu, • , 53Heiltsuk, °, 61Hejen, ⊕ , 51

Hiwi, ∆, 62Hodi, ∆, 62Holikachuk, • , 75Holma, ⊕ , 57Homa, • , 57Hpun, ⊕ , 54Huilliche, • , 63Huitoto, °, 63Hung, ∆, 54Hungarian, Csángó, 50Huron, +, 61I'anni, ⊕ , 57Idu, • , 54Iing, +, 57Iixegwi, +, 57Ilue, • , 57Ingalik, • , 75Ingrian, • , 50Inuit, Arctic Quebec, ∆, 59Inuit, Baffin Land, ∆, 59Inuit, Labrador, °, 59Inuit, Mackenzie

Delta, °/• , 75Inupiaq, North Slope, °, 75Iroquoian, St Lawrence, +, 61Island Carib, +, 62Istriot, • , 50Istroromanian, • , 50Isuwu, +, 57Italkian, ⊕ /+, 50

Itelmen Proper, ⊕ , 51Itonama, ⊕ , 63Iwaidja, ∆, 56Ixam, +, 57Jala, • , 57Jaqaru, °, 63Jargon, Chinook, ⊕ , 61Jawony, • , 56Jebel Haraza, +, 57Jebero, • , 63Jeri, • , 57Jicaque, °, 62Ju, • , 57Juma, ⊕ , 63Jurití, • , 63Kaande, ⊕ , 57Kadu, °, 54Kala Lagaw Ya, ∆, 56Kalmyk, °, 50Kalum (ex) Sorbane?, +, 57Kamas, +, 51Kamchadal, Eastern, +, 51Kamchadal, Southern, +, 51Kamdang, °, 57Kanga, • , 57Kanoê, ⊕ , 63Karaim, Crimean,

Ukranian, ⊕ /+, 50Karaim, Eastern

Ukranian, ⊕ , 50

Karaim, Lithuanian, • , 50Karajarri, ⊕ , 56Karapanã, • , 63Kararaô, • , 63Karelian, °, 50Kari'ña, • , 62Karipuna, ⊕ , 63Karitiana, • , 63Karko, °, 57Kasabe (Luo), +, 57Kashubian, • , 50Kaskar, • , 61Katawixi, ⊕ , 63Katcha, • , 57Kathu, ∆, 54Katukina, • , 63Kayardild, ⊕ , 56Kazibati, • , 57Keiga, • , 57Kerek, ⊕ , 51Ket, • , 51Khakas, o, 51Khamyang, • , 54Khanty, eastern and

central, • , 51Khanty, western, ⊕ , 51+Khomani, ⊕ , 57Kiangang, °, 63Kidie Lafafa, • , 57Kinare, +, 57; 58

68Kiong, • , 57Kitja, °, 56Kolchan or Upper

Kuskokwim, • , 75Kolhreng, +, 54Komi, °, 50Korana, ⊕ , 57Kore, +, 57; 58Koryak, • , 51Kotoko De Koosseri, • , 57Kott, +, 51Koyukon, • , 75Krenjê, • , 63Krimchak, 50Kubi, • , 57Kudu, ⊕ , 57Kufa, • , 57Kuiva, ⊕ , 62Kuku Yalanji, ∆, 56Kumam, °, 57; ∆, 58Kunbarlang, • , 56Kunjen, • , 56Kupto, °, 57Kurrama, • , 56Kurripako, °, 62Kutenai, • , 61Kuuku Ya'u, °, 56Kwadi, ⊕ , 57Kw'adza, +, 57; 58Kwakiutl, °, 61

Kwankwa, +, 57Kwaza, • , 63Kwegu, • , 58Kwegu-Mugudi, • , 57Kwisi, ⊕ , 57Lachi, ∆, 54Ladin, °, 50Laha, ∆, 54Lai, °, 54Lakota, ⊕ , 61Lalo, ∆, 54Lamgang, ∆, 54Lamu, • , 54Langrong, ∆, 54Languedocian, • , 50Laomian, °, 54Lardil, ⊕ , 56Laro, °, 57Latgalian, 50Latundê, • , 63Lavua, ∆, 54Leco, ⊕ , 63Lenca, +, 62Lengua, • , 63Leonese, • , 50Lepcha, °, 53Lere Cluster (Gana, Si,

Takaya), • , 57Ligurian, °, 50Lillooet, • , 61

Limousin, • , 50Li-Ngbee, ⊕ , 57Livonian, ⊕ , 50Logba, °, 57Logudorese, °, 50Lokono, • , 62Lombard, °, 50Lorkoti, +, 57; 58Ludian, • , 50Lumba, ∆, 53Lumun/Lomon, • , 57Luri, • , 57Madngele, ⊕ , 56Maká, °, 63Mako, ⊕ , 62Máku, ⊕ , 63Makurap, • , 63Malin, +, 54Malliseet, ∆, 61Manchu, ⊕/ +, 52Manchu, Amur, ⊕ , 52Manchurian Kirghiz

(Fu Yü), ⊕ , 52Mang, ∆, 54Mangarayi, • , 56Mangarla, ⊕ , 56Mansi, ⊕ , 51Manx, +, 50Mapuche, °, 63Mari, Eastern, °, 50

Mari, Western, • , 50Maridjabin, ⊕ , 56Maringarr, • , 56Marithiel, °, 56Marrgu, ⊕ , 56Maslam (Maltam), • , 57Matagalpa, +, 62Matipu, • , 63Mator, +, 51Maung, ∆, 56Maxakali, °, 63May, ∆, 54Mayol, ∆, 54Mbara, • /⊕ , 57Meglenoromanian, • , 50Mekens, • , 63Meriam Mir, ∆, 56Michif, ⊕ , 61Micmac, ∆, 61Mindari (dialect of

Timme), +, 57Miri, • , 57Mirití, • , 63Miriwoong, ⊕/ • , 56Miskito, ∆, 62Mlabri, ∆, 54Mmani (Bul(l)on), • , 57Mochica, +, 63Mocoví, °, 63Mo'e, +, 57

69Mohawk, °, 61Moksha, °, 50Mongol, eastern

Khamnigan, °, 51Mongol, Khamnigan, °, 52Mongol, north-western

Khamnigan, ⊕ , 51Mongol, southern

Khamnigan, +, 51Mosetén, °, 63Mountain, °, 61Movima, • , 63Mozarabic, +, 50Mpi, ∆, 54Mudbura, • , 56Mullukmulluk, ⊕ , 56Munichi, ⊕ , 63Muuke, • , 57Muysca, +, 62Nagumi, • , 57Nakara, °, 56Nalu, • , 57Nanay, • , 51Napore, +, 57; 58Narluma, °, 56Nass-Gitksan, °, 61Naukanski, • , 75Nayi (Na'o), °, 57Ndai, ⊕ , 57Ndungo, °, 57

Negidal, ⊕ , 51Nenets, central Tundra, +, 51Nenets, eastern Tundra, °, 51Nenets, Forest, • , 51Nenets, western Tundra, • , 51Netsilik Eskimos, ∆/°, 59Neutral, +, 61New Bargut, • , 52Ngalakan, ⊕ , 56Ngaliwuru, ⊕ , 56Ngalkbun, • , 56Nganasan, • , 51Ngandi, ⊕ , 56Ngankikurungkurr, ∆, 56Ngardi, ⊕ , 56Ngarinman, ∆/°, 56Ngarinyin, °, 56Ngarla, ⊕ , 56Ngbinda, • , 57Ngong, +, 57Ngwaba, • , 57Nicola, +, 61Nitinaht, ⊕ , 61Nivkh, Amur, ⊕ , 51Nivkh, Sakhalin, • , 51Njanga, +, 57Njerep, • , 57Nogai, °, 50Nooksack, +, 61Nootka, °, 61

Norman, • , 50Norn, +, 50Nunggubuyu, ∆, 56Nyamal, °/• , 56Nyang'i, ⊕ , 57; 58Nyango-Tafi, °, 57Nyangumarta, ∆, 56Nyigina, • , 56Oayana, ∆, 62Obulom, °, 57Odut, ⊕ , 57Ofayé, • , 63Oiapoque, • , 63Oïl (Champenois, Lorrain), 50Ojibwe, Central, °, 61Ojibwe, Eastern, °, 61Ojibwe, Northwestern, ∆, 61Ojibwe, Ottawa, °, 61Okanagan, • , 61Okorogbana, • , 57Old Bargut, • , 52Old Prussian, +, 50Olonetsian, °, 50Ölöt, Manchurian, ⊕ , 52Omagua, ⊕ , 63Omo Murle, ⊕ , 57; °(?)/• , 58Omotik, ⊕ , 57; ⊕ (?)/+, 58Ona, +, 63Oneida, • , 61Ongamo, ⊕ , 57; 58

'Ongota (Birale), • , 57Onondaga, • , 61Opon-Carare, ⊕ , 62!Ora, ⊕ , 57Oro Win, ⊕ , 63Oroch, ⊕ , 51Orochen, ⊕ , 52Orok, ⊕ , 51Oropom, +, 57; 58Pacific languages, 55Páez, °, 63Pajade (Badiar), °, 57Pakatan, ∆, 54Palikur, • , 62Pana, • , 57Panará, • , 63Panytyima, • , 56Patamona, ∆, 62Pataxo, +, 63Paya, • , 62Pentlatch, +, 61Permyak, °, 50Phake, °, 54Phalok, ⊕ , 54Phonsung, ∆, 54Phuthi, °, 57Piapoko, °, 62Picard, • , 50Pidgin, Central Siberian

Yupik, +, 75

70Pidgin, Eskimo-Chukchi-

English Contact, +, 75Pidgin, Eskimo-Cree, Eskimo-

English Contact, alsoMontagnais Indian, +, 59

Pidgin, Eskimo–Danish, +, 59Pidgin, Eskimo-French in

Labrador, +, 59Pidgin, Eskimo-Gwich'in

(Loucheux) Indian Contact, +, 59

Pidgin, Eskimo-Gwich'in(Loucheux) Indian Contact, +, 75

Pidgin, Kotzebue Eskimo, +, 75Pidgin, West Greenlandic

Eskimo–Germanic, +, 59Piedmontese, °, 50Pijao, +, 63Pilagá, °, 63Pipil, • , 62Pite Sámi, ⊕ , 50Plateau Sign Language, +, 61Plautdeitsch, • , 50Poitevin-Saintongeais, • , 50Poko, °, 57Polabian, +, 50Potawatomi, • , 61Provençal, • , 50Puinave, ⊕ , 62

Pume, ∆, 62Pupeo, °, 54Puquina, +, 63Puruborá, ⊕ , 63Purum, in India, ⊕ , 54Purum, in Myanmar, ⊕ , 54Pyu, +, 54Qawasqar, • , 63Qemant, • , 57Qwarenya (emigration to

Israel in 1991), +, 57Rama, • , 62Rangkhas, ⊕, 53Rembarrunga, °, 56Resígaro, ⊕ , 63Ritarungo, ∆, 56Rohani, ∆, 53Romagnol, °, 50Romani, °, 50Romansch, °, 50Ruc, ∆, 54Rugungu, °, 57; 58Ruhu, +, 57Rusyn, °, 50Rusyn, Voivodena, °, 50Saam, ⊕, 53Sach, ∆, 54Sak, ∆, 54Salamãi, ⊕ , 63Saliba, ⊕ , 62

Salish, Straits, ⊕ , 61Sallirmuit, +, 59Samatau, • , 54Samei, • , 54Sámi, Akkala, ⊕ , 50Sámi, Inari, • , 50Sámi, Kemi, +, 50Sámi, Kildin, • , 50Sámi, Lule, • , 50Sámi, North, °, 50Sámi, Skolt, • , 50Sámi, South, • , 50Sámi, Ter, ⊕ , 50Sámi, Ume, ⊕ , 50Santrokofi, °, 57Sanyi, • , 54Sape, ⊕ , 62Sarcee, ⊕ , 61Sardinian, °, 50Sarwa, °, 57Sassarese, °, 50Saulteaux, °, 61Saxon, Low, °, 50Scanian, 50Scots, °, 50Sechelt, ⊕ , 61Secoya, °, 63Segeju, +, 57; 58Sekani, • , 61Selkup, northern, • , 51

Selkup, southern, ⊕ , 51Seneca, ⊕ , 61Sengmai/Sekmai, +, 54Shabo, • , 57Shan, ⊕ , 57Sheni, ⊕ , 57Shiki, • , 57Shikuyana, • , 63Shipibo-Conibo, °, 63Shiranci, +, 57Shor, • , 51Shuadit, 50Shuswap, °, 61Si (Lere Cluster), • , 57Sila, ∆, 54Sirenikski, +, 60Siwa, • , 57Slavey, North, °, 61Slavey, South, °, 61Slovene, Resian, 50Slovincian, +, 50So, °, 57; • , 58Sogoo, ⊕ , 57; 58Solon, eastern, • , 52Solon, western, ∆, 52Somyer, • , 57Sorbian, Lower, °, 50Sorbian, Upper, °, 50Squamish, ⊕ , 61Stoney, • , 61

71Suba, °, 57; • /+, 58Sumo, ∆, 62Suriána, ⊕ , 63Suruí, °, 63Tagish, ⊕ , 61Tahltan, • , 61Takaya (Lere Cluster), • , 57Taman, °, 54Tanacross, • , 60Tanaina, • , 60Tanana, • , 60Tanglang, ∆, 54Tapayuna, • , 63Tarao, +, 54Tatar, ∆, 50Tatar, Crimean, • , 50Tatar, Siberian, °, 51Taushiro, ⊕ , 63Tehuelche, ⊕ , 63Teleut, • , 51Tenet, • , 57; °, 58Terik, • , 57; 58Tha Vung, ∆, 54Thompson, • , 61Thuri, • , 57Tilung, °, 53Tinigua, ⊕ , 62; 63Tiwi, ∆, 56Tlingit, Inland, • , 61Tlingit, °, 61

Toba, °, 63Tofa, ⊕ , 51Tolcha, +, 53Tonjon (dialect of Jeri), +, 57Toto, °, 53Trio, ∆, 62Trukhmen, 50Trumai, • , 63Tsakonian, • , 50Tsetsaut, +, 61Tsimshian, Coast, °, 61Tsimshian, Southern, ⊕ , 61Tunebo, °, 62Tuscarora, ⊕ , 61Tutchone, Northern, °, 61Tutchone, Southern, °, 61Twendi (Cambap), • , 57Udege (Qiakala), +, 52Udege, ⊕ , 51Udmurt, °, 50Ulcha, ⊕ , 51Umpila, • , 56Undu Rishi, ⊕ , 57Upper Tanana, • , 60Uru, +, 63Uruak, ⊕ , 62Vepsian, • , 50Vilela, +, 63Viri, °, 57Votian, ⊕ , 50

Waanyi, ⊕ , 56Wageman, • , 56Waiwai, ∆, 62Walloon, °, 50Walmajarri, °, 56Wambaya, ⊕ , 56Wanai, +, 62Wangaaybuwan-Nyiya, ⊕ , 56Wanman, • , 56Wapishana, ∆, 62Wardaman, °/• , 56Warekena, ⊕ , 62Wari, °, 63Warlpiri, ∆, 56Warumungu, °, 56Watjarri, • , 56Waunana, ∆, 62Welsh, °, 50Wenro, +, 61Western Desert, E., ∆, 56Western Desert, W., ∆, 56Wik Mungkan, ∆, 56Wik Ngathana, °, 56Wik Ngenchera, • , 56Wiradhuri, ⊕ , 56Worrorra, • , 56Wunambal, ⊕ , 56Xetá, ⊕ , 63Xinca, ⊕ , 62Yaaku, +, 57; 58

Yahgan, ⊕ , 63Yahuma, °, 57Yakut, ∆, 51Yangkam, ⊕ , 57Yanomamï, °, 62Yanyuwa, °, 56Yawarana, ⊕ , 62Yeidji, °/• , 56Yeral, • , 62Yevanric, 50Yiddish, • , 50Yir Yoront, • , 56Yug, ⊕ , 51Yukagir, Forest, ⊕ , 51Yukagir, Tundra, ⊕ , 51Yuki, • , 63Yukpa, ∆, 62Yupik, Central

Alaskan , ∆/°, 60Yupik, Central Siberian, °, 60Yupik, Pacific, • , 60Yuracaré, °, 63Yurats, +, 51Zaozou, ∆, 54Záparo, ⊕ , 63Zaramo, °, 57; ∆, 58Zarphatic, 50Zay (Zway), °, 57Ziriya, ⊕ , 57Zumaya, +, 57

Unesco - Atlas of the Worlds Languages in Danger of Disappearing

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