Experts estimate by the end of the century between 50 and 90 per cent of the world’s languages may have disappeared. New research shows 70 per cent of languages are in biodiversity hotspots – the most threatened locations on Earth – or wilderness areas. With species disappearing 1,000 times faster than at any other time, experts predict a grim future for many human tongues. As local languages are replaced by more universal ones, local traditions and values disappear, to be replaced by industrial ones, according to researchers at Penn State University in the United States. They argue that linguistic and biological diversity are linked, with the loss of one affecting the other. Dr Larry Gorenflo writes in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: “These regions – hot spots and high biodiversity wilderness areas – often contain considerable linguistic diversity, accounting for 70 percent of all languages on Earth. “Moreover, the languages involved frequently are unique to particular regions, with many facing extinction.”