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"Linguists predict that over half of the almost 7,000 languages spoken in the world today will disappear by the end of the century. According to Ethnologue, 473 languages currently are close to extinction. In the Americas alone, 182 are endangered. The Rosetta Project created this map to highlight the near-extinct languages in Africa and the Americas. They are working to update the map to include the entire world."

"Linguistic genocide has frequently been used throughout history to systematically eradicate languages for one reason or another. Sometimes it's to assert the authority of a ruling power, sometimes it's an attempt to assimilate an ethnic minority, and sometimes it's to provide "linguistic unity." In modern times (the past 200 years, for this list) it has been a major cause for the decline of a number of languages"