It is estimated that over 50 million people in the U.S. speak two or more languages. The majority of multilingual residents in the U.S. live in cities, and, as language professionals, we were curious which cities in the U.S. are the most multilingual. We combed through census data and developed a scoring system that includes cultural and linguistic factors in order to rank the top multilingual cities in the country -places where a resident might be able to read a газета, have a quick bite of a عجين الفطير, and maybe even take in a few minutes of a poésie reading, all in the course of an average day.
"Linguists predict that over half of the almost 7,000 languages spoken in the world today will disappear by the end of the century. According to Ethnologue, 473 languages currently are close to extinction. In the Americas alone, 182 are endangered.\n\nThe Rosetta Project created this map to highlight the near-extinct languages in Africa and the Americas. They are working to update the map to include the entire world."
"Linguistic genocide has frequently been used throughout history to systematically eradicate languages for one reason or another. Sometimes it's to assert the authority of a ruling power, sometimes it's an attempt to assimilate an ethnic minority, and sometimes it's to provide "linguistic unity." In modern times (the past 200 years, for this list) it has been a major cause for the decline of a number of languages"
New meaning for 'like' and 'friend?' Great piece about the 'like' button. All you facebook lovers should read it.
"Grassroots Indigenous Multimedia announces the launch of their new Ojibwe language learning software, Ojibwemodaa. The software application uses video conversations and engaging games to immerse the user in the Ojibwe language."