There is agreement among linguists who have considered the
situation over half of the world’s languages are moribund, (1)
i.e. effectively being passed on to the next generation. We and our (2)
children, then, are living in the point in human history where, (3)
within perhaps two generations, most languages in the world will die out.
This mass extinction of languages may not appear immediate (4)
life-threatening. Some will feel that a reduction in numbers of languages
will ease communication, and perhaps helps build nations, even global (5)
solidarity. But there has been well pointed out that the success of humanity (6)
in colonizing the planet has been due to our ability to develop
cultures suit for survival in a variety of environments. These (7)
cultures have everywhere transmitted by languages, in oral (8)
traditions and latter in written literatures. So when language (9)
transmission itself breaks down, especially before the advent of
literacy in a culture, there is always a large loss of inherited knowledge.
Valued or not, that knowledge is lost, but humanity is the poorer. Along (10)
with it may go a large part of the pride and self-identity of the community
of former speakers.