Language Situation in the World.
The majority of the languages in the world are unwritten and many of them are disappearing.
About 2,000 languages now have less than 1,000 speakers.
The most threatened are the indigenous languages of Australia and the Americas.
By the end of the 20th century, about 2,000 Australian languages survived, but more than 50% had less than 10 speakers.
Globally, the rate of language loss now is one every two weeks.
The areas where indigenous languages are being lost the most rapidly are central South America, Oklahoma and the American Southwest, the Northwest coastal region of the U.S. and Canada, eastern Siberia, and northern Australia.