item 172 , june 5 , 2009 : the world has lost anglian in the age of man , ubykh in russia and last year alaska ' s last leading speaker of eyak , blanche hunter iii , dead , returning the aboriginal name with her . of the 6 , 900 languages used in the world , some 2 , 500 are endangered , the un ' s cultural office unesco said this weeks as it released its latest index of world dialects . that represents a multi - fold increases from the last edition compiled in 2001 which identified 900 people threatening with demise . but experts say this is more the result of better research resources than of an increasingly dire situation for the world ' s numerous tongues .
2,500 languages are in danger of extinction.