Croatian Dialect on List of European Languages Facing Extinction

13 European languages could very shortly become extinct, with another 33 European languages, including a Croatian dialect, in danger of also dying out, warns UNESCO, regarding a list of languages in Europe under threat recently released…

The first group of languages on the endangered list are those which are still used, but only rarely. The second group on the list are languages which are in the process already of dying out, including those that are only spoken by a number of people, such as an elder generation.

The most vulnerable is Gottscheerisch, a dialect of the German language, followed by Ter Sami, spoken by up to only a dozen people in Lviv in Western Ukraine. The Karain dialect is next, said to be spoken also by just a handful of people in Galicia, Ukraine. Other languages about to become extinct include Pite Sami and Ume Sami, in Sweden, Votic, West of St Petersburg in Russia, Gagauz, in Bulgaria, Töitschu in Italy, Cappadocian and Tsakonian in Greece, Cornish, in Cornwall UK, Manx in the Isle of Man, and Livonian in Latvia.

Those on the wider list of 33 severely endangered European languages include; Champenois in France, Skolt Sami in Finland, Gardiol in Italy, Jersey French in Jersey, UK, Molise Croatian spoken by around 300 people in Campobasso in Italy, and Istro-Romanian in Mount Ucka in Croatia where 3,000 people reportedly speak the dialect. Check out the full list here.