An endangered language is a language that is at risk of falling out of use, generally because it has few surviving speakers. If it loses all of its native speakers, it becomes a dead language. A language may be endangered in one area but show signs of revitalisation in another, as with the Irish language.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization defines five levels of language endangerment between "safe" (not endangered) and "extinct":
- Vulnerable - "most children speak the language, but it may be restricted to certain domains (e.g., home)"
- Definitely endangered - "children no longer learn the language as mother tongue in the home"
- Severely endangered - "language is spoken by grandparents and older generations; while the parent generation may understand it, they do not speak it to children or among themselves"
- Critically endangered - "the youngest speakers are grandparents and older, and they speak the language partially and infrequently"
- Extinct - "there are no speakers left; included in the Atlas if presumably extinct since the 1950s"
The list below includes the findings from the third edition of Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (2010; formerly the Red Book of Endangered Languages), as well as the online edition of the aforementioned publication, both published by UNESCO.
Afghanistan
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Bangladesh
Bhutan
Burma (Myanmar)
Cambodia
China
(Note: Taiwan area is not included in the list above. Related information is in section Taiwan.)
Cyprus
East Timor
Georgia
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Israel
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Korea
Kyrgyzstan
Laos
Lebanon
Malaysia
Mongolia
Nepal
Oman
Pakistan
Palestine
Philippines
Russia
Sri Lanka
Syria
Taiwan
Tajikistan
Thailand
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Uzbekistan
Vietnam
Yemen
Notes