Endangered languages — Maps, atlases, and media

This global mosaic celebrates diverse linguistic, musical, and cultural practices on five continents and highlights El Silbo, the whistled language of La Gomera in the Canary Islands.

Scientists estimate that of 7,000 languages in the world, half will be gone by the end of this century. The Linguists joins David Harrison and Gregory Anderson, scientists racing to document languages on the verge of extinction.

This documentary portrait of a small Native American tribe struggling to retain what is left of its culture focuses on 77-year-old Marie Smith, the last of Alaska's Eyak Indians to speak the language of her people. The video follows Marie on an emotional journey back to her childhood home along the cost of Prince William Sound, where she presides over a traditional Potlatch ceremony, during which tribal members discuss ways to revive and redefine their threatened culture.

In the Greek island village of Antio, home to the world's most endangered language, aging residents communicate across hillsides through whistles, a specific system of communication believed to date back to Ancient Greece. Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports on how they hope to save their language from extinction and what it has in common with Twitter.

With 96% of the world's population speaking only 4% of the world's languages, what does it mean to speak your mother tongue in this age of language homogenization? Set in Taiwan and Hawai'i, territories where Austronesian languages are spoken, the experimental feature documentary Tongues of heaven focuses on the questions, desires, and challenges of young indigenous peoples to learn the languages of their forebears -- languages that are endangered or facing extinction.

The Young Ancestors explores a growing movement within American Indian communities to revitalize their native languages before they become extinct.