Public Radio International (PRI)

Currently, there are nearly 7,000 languages being spoken worldwide. However, due to aging populations and globalization’s English-only emphasis, a language dies out every 14 days. At this rate, nearly half the world’s languages will vanish in 100 years. Very often, these languages are lost without any record: no clues about pronunciation, let alone grammar or vocabulary.

In this report, Gregory D.S. Anderson, director of Living Tongues, explains why the world’s languages need to be preserved. Also, Margaret Noori, director of the comprehensive studies program and lecturer in the Native American Studies Program at the University of Michigan, discusses the challenges of keeping languages alive.

Living Tongues unveiled eight talking dictionaries of languages that are currently facing extinction last week.

(Image: Living Tongues Global Languages record native speakers of a little-known language in a remote part of India. (Youtube))

Previously unreleased recording: On November 22, 1963, the Situation Room at the White House relays a news report to Air Force One that President John F. Kennedy has been shot. The plane’s code name is Wayside.

“Wayside, Wayside, this is Situation Room. I read from the AP bulletin: Kennedy apparently shot in head. He fell faced-down in back seat of his car. Blood was on his head. Mrs. Kennedy cried ‘oh no’ and tried to hold up his head.”

The complete audio recording from Air Force One on the day of Kennedy’s assassination has now been made available online, including 42 minutes of previously unreleased tape.

(Photo: John F. Kennedy in his Senate Office, 1959. Washington, D. C. From Jfklibrary.org.)

Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit, says the Stop Online Piracy Act, known as SOPA, will have a huge negative impact on future innovations in the online space:

“The idea of simply complying from a legal standpoint is enough to get something shut down before it even gets started. And that means the next YouTube, the next Twitter, the next Reddit, the next Facebook just doesn’t happen here.”

Ohanian, along with Ryan Singel, editor of Threat Level — Wired magazine’s privacy and security blog, discussed the latest development around SOPA on The Takeaway this morning.

(Photo: Alexis Ohanian. From the Association for Computing Machinery.)

You can learn a lot from not talking for 17 years. Environmental activist John Francis did just that. He also didn’t ride in any motorized vehicles for about 22 years. Now he’s talking again, and telling people about what he’s learned.