Enduring Voices Project, Endangered Languages, Map, Facts, Photos, Videos -- National Geographic

This requires the latest version of Flash Player. Click here to download.

Click here to download.

Losing Our World's Languages

Every 14 days a language dies. By 2100, more than half of the more than 7,000 languages spoken on Earth—many of them not yet recorded—may disappear, taking with them a wealth of knowledge about history, culture, the natural environment, and the human brain.

National Geographic's Enduring Voices Project (conducted in collaboration with the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages) strives to preserve endangered languages by identifying language hotspots—the places on our planet with the most unique, poorly understood, or threatened indigenous languages—and documenting the languages and cultures within them.

Why Is It Important?

Language defines a culture, through the people who speak it and what it allows speakers to say. Words that describe a particular cultural practice or idea may not translate precisely into another language. Many endangered languages have rich oral cultures with stories, songs, and histories passed on to younger generations, but no written forms. With the extinction of a language, an entire culture is lost.

Much of what humans know about nature is encoded only in oral languages. Indigenous groups that have interacted closely with the natural world for thousands of years often have profound insights into local lands, plants, animals, and ecosystems—many still undocumented by science. Studying indigenous languages therefore benefits environmental understanding and conservation efforts.

Studying various languages also increases our understanding of how humans communicate and store knowledge. Every time a language dies, we lose part of the picture of what our brains can do.

Why Do Languages Die Out?

Throughout human history, the languages of powerful groups have spread while the languages of smaller cultures have become extinct. This occurs through official language policies or through the allure that the high prestige of speaking an imperial language can bring. These trends explain, for instance, why more language diversity exists in Bolivia than on the entire European continent, which has a long history of large states and imperial powers.

As big languages spread, children whose parents speak a small language often grow up learning the dominant language. Depending on attitudes toward the ancestral language, those children or their children may never learn the smaller language, or they may forget it as it falls out of use. This has occurred throughout human history, but the rate of language disappearance has accelerated dramatically in recent years.

Related Features

Arunachal Pradesh, India Expedition 2011

Read the full report from the Enduring Voices team's 2011 expedition to Arunachal Pradesh, India, where they visited five endangered language communities.
Chile Expedition

The Enduring Voices team traveled to Chile to assess the current status of an endangered South American language, Huilliche. Read their findings about why Huilliche is much more endangered, at least in some communities, and the overall number of speakers lower than previously reported.
Enduring Voices Launches YouTube Channel

Using YouTube as a platform, researchers, academics, and communities can now collaborate more effectively on promoting language revitalization. Endangered languages that may have never been heard outside of a remote village can now reach a global audience.
Hidden Language Recorded

A language previously unknown to linguists, and spoken by about 800 people has been documented in the mountains of northeast India. Researchers with National Geographic’s Enduring Voices project recorded the Koro language for the first time.
Gregory Anderson, Linguist

Dr. Gregory D. S. Anderson is a linguist who is director of the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, a non-profit organization dedicated to the documentation, revitalization, and maintenance of endangered languages.
David Harrison, Linguist

K. David Harrison is a linguist and leading specialist in the study of endangered languages. He co-leads the Enduring Voices project at National Geographic and is an associate professor at Swarthmore College.
Chris Rainier, Photographer

Chris Rainier is considered one of the leading documentary photographers working today. His life's mission is to put on film both the remaining natural wilderness and indigenous cultures around the globe and to use images to create social change.