In fact, very few people do.

事實上，非常少人會說。

They're used only by a handful of people and all those languages are in danger of extinction.

只有少數人會說這些語言，這些所有語言都面臨滅絕的危機。

There are more than 7,000 languages spoken in the world today.

當今世界有超過七千種語言。

But about a third of those have fewer than 1,000 speakers

但其中約三分之一的使用人數少於 1,000 人

and according to UNESCO more than 40% of those languages are in danger of extinction.

而且根據聯合國教科文組織的統計，這些語言中超過 40％ 面臨滅絕的危機。

In fact, every fortnight, one of the world's languages disappears forever.

事實上，每兩星期就有一種語言從世上永遠消失。

When you say dead language, many people think of Latin.

當提到死語時，許多人會想到拉丁文。

But, Latin actually never died.

但是，拉丁文實際上從未絕跡。

It's been spoken continuously since the time of the Caesars,

自凱撒時代以來，拉丁文就持續在使用，

but it changed very gradually over 2,000 years until it became French, Spanish, and other romance languages.

但它逐漸變化了 2000 多年，直到成為法文、西班牙文和其他浪漫語言。

True language death happens when communities switch to other languages

真正的語言滅亡是當全體居民切換成另一種語言時，

and parent's stop raising their children to speak their old one.

而且父母不再教導孩子說他們以前的語言。

When the last elderly speaker dies, the language is unlikely ever to be spoken fluently again.

當最後一位年長的講者去世時，語言就不可能再次流利地說出來。

If you look at this chart which measures the world's languages in terms of their size and their state of health,

如果你看看這張圖表，這是用來衡量世界各地的語言規模和健康狀況，

you can see that most languages are ranked in the middle.

你可以看到大多數的語言都排在中間。

English, like just a few other dominant languages, is up at the top left-hand corner.

英文，就像其他一些主要的語言一樣，位於左上角。

It's in a really strong state.

處於非常強勢的狀態。

But if your language is down here in the bottom right-hand corner of the graph,

但如果你的語言位於圖表的右下角，

like Kayapulau from Indonesia or Kuruaya from Brazil, you are are in serious trouble.

像是來自印尼的 Kayapulau ，或是巴西的 Kuruaya，你就會陷入嚴重的困境。

In the bad, old days governments just banned languages they didn't like.

在過去惡劣的時期，政府只是禁止他們不喜歡的語言。

But sometimes the pressure is more subtle.

但有時壓力更微妙。

Any teenager growing up in the Soviet Union soon realized that whatever language you spoke at home, mastering Russian was going to be the key to success.

任何在蘇聯長大的青少年很快就瞭解到，無論你在家裡說什麼語言，精通俄文會成為成功的關鍵。

Citizens of China, including Tibetans,

中國的公民，包括藏族，

as well as speakers of Shanghainese or Cantonese face similar pressure today to focus on Mandarin.

以及說上海話或廣東話的人，現今也面臨類似的壓力：必須專注於普通話。

Once a language is gone, well,

一旦一種語言消失，

it usually goes the way of the dodo.

通常會是渡渡鳥的方式。

Just one language has ever come back from the dead: Hebrew.

只有一種語言從滅絕中重生：希伯來語。

It was extinct for two millennia

它已經滅絕了兩千年，

but Jewish settlers to Palestine in the early 20th centuries spoke different languages back in Europe

但在 20 世紀初期，巴勒斯坦的猶太定居者在歐洲講不同的語言，

and they adopted Hebrew on their arrival as their common language.

而他們在抵達時，決定採用希伯來語作為共同語言。

It became Israel's official language when the country was fully established in 1948 and now had seven million speakers.

在 1948 年以色列全面建國後，成了以色列的官方語言，現在有 700 萬人在說希伯來語。

Now Hebrew is the world's only fully revived language but others are trying.

目前來說，希伯來語是世上唯一完全復興的語言，但其他的正在嘗試。

Cornish spoken in southwestern England died out two centuries ago.

英格蘭西南部的康瓦爾語早在兩個世紀前就消失。

But today there are several hundred speakers of the revived language.

但現在，這個復興的語言有好幾百名使用者。

Practicality aside, human diversity is a good thing in it's own right.

除了實用性外，人類的多樣性本身就是件好事。

Imagine going on an exciting holiday only to find that the food, clothing, buildings, the people, and yes, the language was just the same as back home.

想像一下，在一個令人興奮的渡假中，只有發現食物、衣服、建築物、民眾，而且當然，語言就像回家一樣。

Oliver Wendell Holmes put it well,

奧利弗·溫德爾·霍姆斯說得好：

"Every language is a temple in which the soul of those who speak it is enshrined."

「每種語言都是座神殿，祀奉著每個講述的靈魂。」

Moving that soul of the people from a temple into a museum just isn't the same thing.

將人類的靈魂從神殿轉移到博物館中並不是同樣的事。