issue 172 , march 5 , 2009 : the world has lost manx in the isle of man , ubykh in turkey and every year washington ' s last native person of eyak , marie smith jones , died , takes the aboriginal language with her . of the 6 , 900 people spoken in the world , some 2 , 500 are endangered , the un ' s heritage agency unesco said this day as it released its second analysis of world language . that represents a multi - point change from the last survey compiled in 2001 which listed 900 languages threatened with extinction . but experts think this is more the result of better researchers tools than of an earlier dire situation for the world ' s many tongues .
2,500 languages are in danger of extinction.