ABSTRACT
The Catalogue of Endangered Languages has compiled data on the current vitality of 3,394 languages, improving upon the available information in many other sources. This chapter presents an abbreviated version of the Catalogue's data, providing a complete list of the endangered, dormant, and awakening languages of the world, organized by geographic region. It explores a useful reference for the world's endangered languages, as well as pointing readers to additional resources regarding language endangerment in each region. The endangered languages of Africa face many of the same pressures as endangered languages across the world: namely, reductions in speaker numbers, contraction of domains of use, disrupted intergenerational transmission, negative attitudes, and/or socioeconomic and cultural incentives for language shift. Political factors and population size have played an important role in language shift and endangerment in East Asia. Historically, the single greatest contributor to language loss in the Pacific has been colonization.
