Digital language death

PLoS One. 2013 Oct 22;8(10):e77056. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0077056. eCollection 2013.

Abstract

Of the approximately 7,000 languages spoken today, some 2,500 are generally considered endangered. Here we argue that this consensus figure vastly underestimates the danger of digital language death, in that less than 5% of all languages can still ascend to the digital realm. We present evidence of a massive die-off caused by the digital divide.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Humans
  • Linguistics*

Grants and funding

Work supported by OTKA grant #82333. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.