issue 172 , june 5 , 2009 : the community has lost manx in the isle of man , ubykh in turkish and last month america ' s last native speaker of eyak , marie smith hughes , died , leaving the aboriginal culture with her . of the 6 , 900 consonants spoken in the world , some 2 , 500 are listed , the un ' s cultural portal unesco said this day as it released its latest atlas of world languages . that represents a 20 - fold increase from the latest index compiled in 2001 whom listed 900 people feared with survival . but professionals say this is more the effect of better research tools than of an increasingly dire situation for the world ' s many tongues .
2,500 languages are in danger of extinction.