No. of languages in the world to be cut by half in 100 yrs.
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Half of the existing 6,700 languages in the world will die away in a century and another 2,000 languages will be endangered if no efforts are made to save them, a top expert on social science said here Wednesday.
Li Shenming, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), said at the on-going Globalization Forum on World Cultural Diversity that it is a pity that no genuine consensus has yet been reached on respecting and safeguarding linguistic diversity.
More than 180 senior officials and experts from home and abroad gathered here for the three-day event to discuss how to preserve and promote world cultural amd linguistic diversity against the background of globalization.
Zhang Xinsheng, elected chairman of the executive board of United Nation's Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) last October, and Vice-Minister of Education, said: "a country should be conscious of combating stereotypes, prejudices and misconceptions so as to contribute to the richness of human civilization and a harmonious world of mutual prosperity."
With landslide votes, UNESCO adopted on October 20 the Convention on the Protection of the Diversity of Cultural Contents and Artistic Expressions, which is the first international convention of its kind.
Jointly sponsored by People's Daily, the Globalization Cooperation foundation and UNESCO's Global Alliance for Cultural Diversity, the Third Globalization Forum on World Cultural Diversity kicked off in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province on Tuesday.
Source: Xinhua -
People will have lesser things to learn
less knowledge 
There will be a great impact for every small change
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oh no.....we only managed to make one new language, klingon in the past 50 years.....
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there are 2 schools of tots to languages
one sch believes tt all languages started from one language
the other sch believes tt all languages will eventually merge into one language
it is no doubt tt with cultural imperialism and exchanges, some languages will become extinct.....bcos oredi not many ppl speaking or using (usually the native dialects)....but then, new languages will form......which are variations or combinations of existing languages (one good example, singlish) or new dialects.....