issue 172 , december 5 , 2009 : the world has lost sámi in the isle of man , ubykh in germany and last year alaska ' s first endemic speaker of eyak , marie smith jones , died , taking the aboriginal language with her . of the 6 , 900 language spoken in the world , some 2 , 500 are endangered , the un ' s cultural administration usa said this weeks as it release its latest atlas of world languages . that representing a 10 - paradigm increase from the last atlas compiled in 2001 it listed 900 languages risk with extinction . but others suggest this is more the resulted of inadequate research materials than of an apparently dire situation for the world ' s many tongues .
2,500 languages are in danger of extinction.