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English will still dominate a century from now, but it will no longer share the planet with thousands of other languages. Instead, expect fewer but simpler modes of oral communication on every continent.

In 1880 a Bavarian priest created a language that he hoped the whole world could use. That language failed because English was already on the rise. Why is English growing more popular when Chinese is the largest language in the world? It is possible by 2115 that there will only be 600 languages from the 6,000 there are today.

Recent studies may reveal that the advantages of bilingualism arise with any combination of language varieties that differ enough to challenge the brain. They could be dialects of the same language, two related languages such as Italian and Spanish, or as diverse as English and Mandarin Chinese. Systematically switching between any two forms of language, even quite similar ones, seems to provide the mind with the extra stimulation that leads to higher cognitive performance. What our research suggests - contrary to some widely held beliefs - is that, when it comes to language, plurality is an advantage and in this respect dialects are under-recognised and undervalued. This kind of research can make people appreciate there is an advantage to bi-dialectalism - and this may be important when we think about our identity, how we educate children and the importance of language learning.

In many languages, such as Mandarin Chinese, pitch is as important as consonants and vowels for distinguishing one word from another. Tone languages are spoken all over the world, but they tend to cluster in three places: East and Southeast Asia; sub-Saharan Africa; and among the indigenous communities of Mexico. There are certain advantages to speaking tone languages. Speakers of some African languages can communicate across long distances playing the tones on drums, and Mazatec-speakers in Mexico use whistling for the same purpose. Also, speakers of tonal languages are better at identifying musical pitches than speakers of non-tonal languges.

NPR Short Wave host and reporter Emily Kwong is a third generation Chinese American, but she hasn't spoken or learned her language. She begins her journey at 30.

The U.S Department of Defense is cutting funding for 13/31 language flagship programs at 23 universities including Brigham Young, UH Manoa, and University of Washington. This comes as a surprise for the linguistic community as this will cut nearly half of of Chinese, Korean, Arabic, and Russian groups alike. The overall concern is this will be detrimental to national security, and global diplomacy raising conerns about the future of language education, and the U.S's ability to engage with other cultures.