The Death of Linguistic Diversity in the Modern Age

Bryan Michael Fores, Hongkai Wang, Ryan Wang

Explore the Evolution of Modern Languages

Click on a node (language group) to explore how, and where, it evolved. Language group positions are mean lon/lat of child languages.
Terminal languages are indicated in red.

Let's see what you know about linguistic diversity!

How many languages exist around the world?

Drag the Orange "Your Prediction Here!" bars to create your predictions!

The American melting pot of cultures is mirrored in its linguistic landscape, telling a story of immigration, history, and globalization.

Explore how non-primary languages change over time in the US

1st most spoken non-English language in each state for

Despite this diversity, linguistic variety in the US has long been dwindling. Native American languages are disappearing at a worrying pace.

No more than 20 Native American languages are expected to last by the end of this century.

As we turn our gaze globally, we see the same concerning patterns.

Languages worldwide are facing existential crises

There is a total of 7500 languages worldwide. However, many of these languages are on the verge of collapse and extinction.
The well-being of a language can be rougly split into 5 different categories based on they are utilized by their users.

Language Classification Definition
Institutional Developed languages are widely used by communities and institutions to exchange ideas across a large population.
Developing Developing Language have standardized forms and are used by substantial number of people.
However, developing languages are not yet widespread or sustainable.
Vigorous Vigorous Languages are not actively developing. But they still enjoy vigorous face-to-face use in daily life by all generations of a population.
In trouble In Trouble languages are used by all generations of a population, but are not passed down to new generations.
Dying Dying languages are only used by the grandparents in the family. The newer generation is not learning the language anymore.
Extinct Extinct languages are no longer used by anyone.

While the Information Age, brings cultures closer, it also sidelines communities and accelerates the trend of language extinction.

The Internet language landscape differs from the real world

The content on the internet is strongly biased toward english speaking audiences.
The amount of content online in a certain language is not directly proportional with the size of the population that speaks the language.
Non-institutional languages receives virtually no representation on the internet!
Show statistics on:
Based on the study conducted by W3techs. *Language content percentage is calculated as by this method.
TL;DR: the metric measures the percentage of popular websites based in a specifc language.

The internet is a foundation for cutting-edge information technologies. but these tools often fall short in supporting less popular languages.

Multilingual translation worsens with rare language families

Performance is measured using BLEU, a translation precision metric (higher is better). Blue is the internet makeup %, red is the average performance of 9 popular LLMs, and yellow is the performance of ChatGPT.
Hover points on the Radar Chart (left) to get granular details.

This means, modern LLMs have a bias towards popular languages (like the Indo-European family). With these tools becoming more prevalent in the modern era, the downward trend in linguistic diversity is reinforced!

What can we do to preserve global language diversity?

What can we do to help?

Incorporate Language Preservation Participate or contribute to research and digital resources
Create printed and recorded resources that preserve the sound and context of a language is the most effective way of helping struggling languages to maintain a presence through a long time.
Encourage the integration of Indigenous languages in school curricula
Encourage younger generations to speak their native language and teach it to their children. This can be done by introducing local native languages in schools and encouraging students to specialize in them in college.
Or...learn about the impact of colonization and assimilation policies on Indigenous people
Exploring this history reveals the profound loss of linguistic diversity and cultural heritage. Knowing the history is the only way to move forward!
Learn more about linguistic diversity from a Harvard alum here!
*Images are generated by ChatGPT4 with DALL·E

Organizations Fighting for Language Preservation

Here are some organizations that are conserving the linguistic diversity across the globe. Check them out!
The Endangered Languages Project (ELP) is a hub for preserving languages close to extinction. It lists over 3,000 languages, around half of all languages, that are at risk. By 2020, the project covered languages from 180 countries, highlighting the need to save over 40% of the world's 7,000 languages in danger.
The Living Tongues Institute fights against language extinction using education, tech, and activism. They document at-risk languages, do research, and teach digital skills to language activists. A major project trains indigenous youth to record their elders' languages, boosting documentation and cultural pride. They've also made over 100 online "living dictionaries" to help preserve and revive languages.
UNESCO's World Atlas of Languages (WAL) is an online tool documenting over 8,324 spoken and signed languages, aiming to preserve global linguistic diversity. It collects detailed data to understand languages in their cultural and social contexts, underlining their role in keeping cultural identity and heritage. The WAL helps shape language protection policies and highlights the importance of linguistic preservation for social unity, sustainable development, and fair participation.