We use language in many ways each day. Any time we talk, listen to the radio, read a book, or write a note, we depend on a language to receive or convey information. I recently learned about two interesting websites about the languages spoken around the world.

If you're curious about the history of languages, how they're related, and where they're spoken, take a look at the National Virtual Translation Center's Languages of the World site. The About Language link provides information about language origins, the range of world languages, language families, endangered languages, writing systems, international languages (official languages of the United Nations), top languages used on the internet, and languages spoken in the United States. This last category provides a link to the MLA Language Map, which uses data from the 2000 US census to display the locations and numbers of speakers of numerous languages in the United States. You can even find out how many people in your zip code speak a particular language. Keep in mind that this information is from 2000, and some of the percentages may have changed since then. Nonetheless, it is a valuable demographic tool and can be a lot of fun. The World Languages link provides information about languages around the world, from Navajo to Norwegian. You can also sort the list by language family to see how different languages are connected. If you consider yourself an expert on a language, click the Test Yourself link to take a quiz.

Unfortunately, not all languages last forever. According to the National Geographic Enduring Voices Project, every two weeks a language--an integral part of a society's culture--dies. Each year, then, the world loses 26 languages. The site notes, "by 2100, more than half of the more than 7,000 languages spoken on Earth—many of them never yet recorded—will likely disappear, taking with them a wealth of knowledge about history, culture, the natural environment, and how the human brain works." The project aims to preserve endangered languages by identifying the places where languages are threatened and documenting the languages and cultures. The interactive map on this site shows you where the endangered languages are spoken. The United States has two endangered language hotspots--Oklahoma/Southwest and the Pacific Northwest Plateau, which includes part of Canada. Clicking on the hotspots will give you further information.

Here's an example of the MLA map. This shows the number of French speakers per county in New Hampshire: