Defending America’s Endangered Languages

Nobody knows how many languages Americans speak.

The most exhaustive tally by the Census Bureau a decade ago found more than 350, but the actual number is likely to be several times that. A recent linguist-run survey has found 700 languages and counting in New York alone, making it the most linguistically diverse city on record. That means around 10 percent of the world’s languages are represented in America’s largest city, including not only all major national languages but hundreds of indigenous...