MANY languages are at greater risk of extinction than endangered birds or mammals. So says a biologist who has applied the criteria used to assess the threat to animal species to the 6,809 human languages spoken today.
Animals can be classified as 鈥渃ritically endangered鈥�, 鈥渆ndangered鈥� or 鈥渧ulnerable鈥� depending on their population size and its rate of decline. Such internationally recognised standards do not exist for languages, so William Sutherland at the University of East Anglia in Norwich decided to borrow the biological rules.
While 12.2 per cent of birds and 25.7 per cent of mammals fall into one of the three threatened categories, Sutherland has found that 27.2 per cent of languages are at risk (Nature, vol 423, p 276).
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