About
In a world that continues to globalize, linguistic diversity is in grave danger. Languages, the vibrant vessels of culture, history, and identity, are vanishing at an alarming rate. Each lost language takes with it a unique worldview and irreplaceable cultural treasures. The Forgotten Tongues project shines a light on this urgent issue, mapping 2,951 extinct and endangered languages across the globe.
The project categorizes each language by its level of endangerment: Shifting, Threatened, Nearly Extinct, Moribund, and Extinct. The proportional symbol map identifies the locations of these linguistic communities, with bubble sizes indicating their current speaking populations. Meanwhile, the heatmap highlights clusters where linguistic diversity is most at risk.
This map is more than a snapshot of fading words and phrases; it's a call to action to preserve the rich heritage they represent.
Function:
Search by language name or by country
Switch between proportional symbol map (speaking population) and heatmap (risk clusters)
Map by:Yanbing Chen, Maggie Lehane, Qianheng Zhang
Data Sources:
Global Predictors of Language Endangerment and the Future of Linguistic Diversity;