Endangered dialects

Aka-Bo

also: Bo

A North Great Andamanese language originally of northern Great Andaman, whose surviving speakers were resettled on Strait Island. Died with Boa Sr in 2010; her speech and songs were recorded by Anvita Abbi in the Vanishing Voices of the Great Andamanese project.

Dalmatian

also: Dalmatic, Vegliote

An extinct Romance language of the eastern Adriatic coast, intermediate between Italo-Romance and Eastern Romance. Its last dialect, Vegliote of the island of Krk, died with Tuone Udaina in 1898, a year after Matteo Bartoli recorded around 2,800 words from him.

Eyak

The sole non-Athabaskan member of the Athabaskan-Eyak branch of Na-Dené, spoken around the Copper River delta near Cordova, Alaska. Died with Marie Smith Jones in 2008; thoroughly documented by Michael Krauss, whose materials now support a second-language revival.

Mandan

also: Nuʼeta

A highly divergent Siouan language of the upper Missouri River, latterly spoken on the Fort Berthold reservation in North Dakota. Died with Edwin Benson in 2016, after Indrek Park's multi-year documentation with him; heritage teaching continues within the MHA Nation.

Old Prussian

also: Prussian, Prūsiskan

The only substantially attested West Baltic language, spoken in historical Prussia around the Sambia peninsula — today's Kaliningrad Oblast and north-eastern Poland. Extinct since the early 18th century, after the 1709–1711 plague; attested in three 16th-century catechisms and the Elbing vocabulary, with a modern reconstruction movement.

Sirenik

also: Sireniki Yupik, Old Sirenik

A highly divergent Eskaleut language of the village of Sireniki on the southern Chukchi peninsula, mutually unintelligible with its nearest Yupik relatives and sometimes treated as a third Eskimo branch. Died with its last speaker in 1997; the community now speaks Central Siberian Yupik and Russian.

Tehuelche

also: Aonekko ʼaʼien, Aonikenk

The last spoken Chonan language, of the Patagonian steppe in Santa Cruz province, southern Argentina. Died with Dora Manchado in 2019, taking the Chonan family with it as a living lineage; recorded in her final years by Javier Domingo, building on Ana Fernández Garay's documentation.

Ubykh

also: Pekhi

A Northwest Caucasian language of the Black Sea coast around present-day Sochi, carried to Anatolia in the 1864 deportation. Famous for one of the largest consonant inventories ever recorded — around eighty consonants against two phonemic vowels. Died with its last speaker, Tevfik Esenç, in 1992; extensively documented by Georges Dumézil.

Welsh Romani

also: Kååle, Welsh Kale

The inflected Northern Romani variety historically spoken by the Kååle of Wales. It was extensively documented by John Sampson in the early twentieth century and is now extinct as a first language, the last fluent speakers having died in the mid-twentieth century. It is notable as the last conservatively inflected Romani dialect attested in Britain.

Yagán

also: Yámana, Yágankuta

A language isolate of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago, around the Beagle Channel and Navarino Island. Source of the famously untranslatable word mamihlapinatapai; recorded in a 32,000-word missionary dictionary by Thomas Bridges. Died with Cristina Calderón in 2022; heritage revival continues at Puerto Williams.

ǀXam

also: Cape Bushman

A !Ui (Tuu) click language of the Upper Karoo in the Northern Cape, extinct since the 1910s. Survives in the vast Bleek and Lloyd archive of the 1870s and in South Africa's national motto, !ke e: ǀxarra ǁke — "diverse people unite".

Ainu

A language isolate of the indigenous Ainu people of Hokkaido and historically Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. Critically endangered with only a handful of native speakers; subject of an active revitalisation effort.

Cappadocian Greek

The Greek of inner Anatolia, isolated for centuries before the 1923 population exchange brought its speakers to Greece. Heavily Turkic-influenced; once thought extinct but rediscovered in central Greece in the 2000s.

Chickasaw

also: Chikashshanompa

A Muskogean language of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma. Closely related to Choctaw; critically endangered with active revitalisation through the Chickasaw Nation Language Department.

Crimean Tatar

also: Qırımtatarca

A mixed Turkic language of the Crimean peninsula, descended from contact between Kipchak and Oghuz varieties. Critically endangered after the 1944 Soviet deportation; subject of an active revitalisation effort.

Great Andamanese

also: Present-day Great Andamanese, Jeru

A koine of the four North Great Andamanese languages, with a grammar based mainly on Jeru, spoken on Strait Island in the Andaman archipelago. Around three elderly speakers remain of one of the world's primary language families, notable for a grammatical system in which nouns and verbs are obligatorily marked with body-part-based prefixes.

Itelmen

also: Western Kamchadal

The sole surviving language of the Kamchatkan branch of Chukotko-Kamchatkan, spoken in villages along the western coast of Kamchatka such as Kovran. Only a few elderly fluent speakers remain; known for extremely complex consonant clusters, and structurally so divergent from Chukchi-Koryak that its place in the family is debated.

Jeju

also: Jejueo

The variety of Jeju Island, often classified as a separate Koreanic language. Carries archaic features lost on the mainland and is critically endangered.

Kawésqar

also: Qawasqar, Alacalufe

The last surviving Alacalufan language, spoken at Puerto Edén on Wellington Island in the fjords of Chilean Patagonia. The language of the last nomadic canoe peoples of the southern channels; fewer than ten fluent speakers remain.

Ket

The last living Yeniseian language, spoken along the middle Yenisei in central Siberia. Around 200 elderly speakers; recently linked to the Na-Dené family of North America in the controversial Dene-Yeniseian hypothesis.

Koryo-mar

also: Koryo-mal, Koryo-saram Korean

The Korean variety of the Koryo-saram, descended from communities deported from the Soviet Far East in 1937 to Central Asia. A Hamgyŏng-derived dialect heavily influenced by Russian, now critically endangered.

Kusunda

also: Ban Raja

A language isolate of mid-western Nepal, historically spoken by forest-dwelling hunter-gatherers of the Dang valley and southern Rolpa. One fully fluent speaker remains; the language has no words for yes or no, expressing polarity through verb modification instead. Community revitalisation classes are ongoing.

Livonian

also: Līvõ kēļ, Liv

A Finnic Uralic language of the Livonian Coast of Courland, Latvia. The last fluent native speaker died in 2013, but an active revival sustains a small community of second-language speakers, supported by the University of Latvia Livonian Institute. Notable for its stød-like broken tone, rare among Uralic languages.

Lower Sorbian

also: Dolnoserbski, Niedersorbisch, Wendish

A West Slavic language spoken by the Sorb minority of Lower Lusatia in Brandenburg, centred on Cottbus (Chóśebuz). Critically endangered, with revitalisation efforts in bilingual schools and the Witaj programme.

Lushootseed

also: Puget Salish

A Salishan language of the Coast Salish peoples around Puget Sound in western Washington. Critically endangered; subject of an active revitalisation through the Tulalip and Muckleshoot tribes.

Manchu

A Tungusic language and the historical court language of the Qing dynasty (1644-1912). Now critically endangered, with only a handful of native speakers in Heilongjiang.

Munsee

also: Munsee Delaware, Lunaape

An Eastern Algonquian language of the Lenape (Delaware), originally spoken around the lower Hudson, including present-day New York City. The last native-speaker community is the Delaware Nation at Moraviantown in south-western Ontario, where a single elderly first-language speaker was reported in the 2020s alongside a growing circle of second-language learners.

Nivkh

also: Gilyak

A language isolate of Sakhalin and the lower Amur basin in Russia. Critically endangered; one of the few Paleo-Siberian languages with no demonstrated relatives.

Nǀuu

also: Nǁng, ǂKhomani

The last surviving language of the !Ui branch of the Tuu family, spoken in the southern Kalahari around Upington in the Northern Cape. One fluent native speaker remains, who runs a community language school; the language has one of the largest consonant inventories ever recorded, including dozens of click consonants.

Tsakonian

also: Tsakonika

The only living descendant of ancient Doric Greek, spoken in a few villages of the Peloponnese around Leonidio. Critically endangered; structurally distinct from all other Greek varieties, which descend from Attic-Ionic.

Yaghnobi

also: Yagnobi

An eastern Iranian language of the Yaghnob valley in Tajikistan. The only living descendant of Sogdian, the lingua franca of the medieval Silk Road; critically endangered.

Yuchi

also: Euchee, Tsoyaha

A language isolate of north-eastern Oklahoma, around Sapulpa within the Muscogee Nation, originally spoken in the south-eastern United States before removal. At most a handful of elderly native speakers remain; the Yuchi immersion school is again raising children with the language.

Zargari

also: Zargari Romani, Zargari Romanes, Zargar Romani

A highly endangered Romani variety spoken in and around the village of Zargar in Qazvin province of north-western Iran, west of Tehran. The community is traditionally said to have been settled in the Safavid period and is one of the easternmost Romani-speaking populations on record; the dialect retains a Romani lexical core but shows heavy contact influence from Persian and Azerbaijani Turkish in phonology, vocabulary, and grammar. Speaker numbers are small and intergenerational transmission has weakened sharply.

Caló

also: Iberian Romani, Zincaló, Caló Romani

The Iberian para-Romani variety spoken by the Calé (Gitanos) of Spain and, in related forms, Portugal and southern France. A Romani-derived lexicon is embedded in a Castilian (or Catalan/Portuguese) grammatical frame; the older inflected Iberian Romani is no longer spoken. Caló vocabulary has left a marked imprint on Andalusian Spanish and flamenco.

Finnish Kalo

also: Kaale, Finnish Kaale, Fíntiko Rómma

A Northern Romani variety spoken by the Finnish Kale in Finland and, through twentieth-century migration, in Sweden. It shows heavy structural and phonological influence from Finnish, including consonant gradation, and is one of the most distinctive Northern Romani dialects. Intergenerational transmission has weakened markedly.

Jerusalem Domari

also: Domari of Jerusalem, Nawari

The most thoroughly documented Domari variety, spoken by the Dom community of the Old City of Jerusalem. Severely endangered, with only a few hundred fluent speakers; the reference variety in Matras (2012), A Grammar of Domari.

Manx

also: Gaelg

A Goidelic Celtic language of the Isle of Man. Functionally extinct in 1974 with the death of its last native speaker; revived through education and now spoken as a second language by hundreds.

Romanichal

also: Angloromani, British Romani, Pogadi Chib

The Romani variety of the Romanichal Travellers of England and the wider British Isles. The older inflected dialect is no longer spoken; it survives as Angloromani, a para-Romani register in which a substantial Romani-derived lexicon is embedded in an English grammatical frame. Diaspora communities exist in North America and Australia.

Scandoromani

also: Tavringer Romani, Traveller Romani, Rommani

A para-Romani variety spoken by Traveller communities in Sweden and Norway, combining a Romani-derived lexicon with a Scandinavian grammatical frame. It descends from the speech of Romani groups present in the region since the sixteenth century and survives today largely as an in-group vocabulary register.

Seke

also: Tangbe

A Tamangic (Tibeto-Burman) language of five villages in Upper Mustang, Nepal, with roughly 700 speakers worldwide. A sizeable share of the community now lives in New York City, where about half of the diaspora speakers are concentrated in a single Brooklyn apartment building.

Western Neo-Aramaic

also: Maaloula Aramaic, Siryon

The only surviving Western Aramaic vernacular, spoken in the Anti-Lebanon villages of Maaloula, Bakhʿa, and Jubbʿadin north of Damascus by both Christian and Muslim communities. Fewer than 10,000 fluent speakers remain after wartime displacement, most of them older adults.

Wymysorys

also: Vilamovian, Wymysiöeryś

A West Germanic language spoken only in the town of Wilamowice in southern Poland, descended from medieval German-Flemish settlement. Around 20 elderly native speakers remain, but a youth revitalisation movement has produced a new cohort of fluent younger speakers.

Cajun French

also: Louisiana French, Français cadien

The French of the Cajun communities of southern Louisiana, descended from 18th-century Acadian settlers expelled from the Maritimes. Endangered, with active revitalisation through CODOFIL and the Louisiana French immersion programme.

Crimean Romani

also: Krymitika Roma, Crimean Roma

A Balkan Romani variety spoken by Roma communities of the Crimean peninsula and the northern Black Sea coast, marked by heavy contact influence from Crimean Tatar and other Turkic languages in both lexicon and phonology.

Hawrami

An older and distinctive Kurdish variety spoken in pockets along the Iran-Iraq border, rich in classical poetic tradition.

Kalmyk

also: Kalmyk Oirat, Khalimag

The only Mongolic language of Europe, spoken in the Republic of Kalmykia by the descendants of 17th-century Oirat migrants from Dzungaria. Endangered but officially recognised.

Mariupolitan Greek

also: Rumeika, Azov Greek

The Greek of the Mariupol region in Ukraine, descended from communities resettled from Crimea by Catherine the Great in 1778. Endangered; structurally close to Pontic Greek.

Mlabri

also: Mrabri, Yumbri

A Khmuic (Austroasiatic) language of formerly nomadic hunter-gatherers in the highlands of Nan and Phrae provinces, northern Thailand, and adjacent Laos. Roughly 100–300 speakers; its numeral system allows only one and two to modify nouns, and it lacks the register contrasts typical of related languages.

Occitan

also: Lenga dʼòc, Provençal

A Romance language of southern France, the Aran valley in Catalonia, and a few alpine valleys of Italy. The language of the medieval troubadours; now endangered in everyday use.

Scottish Gaelic

also: Gàidhlig

A Goidelic Celtic language closely related to Irish, spoken across the Outer Hebrides and parts of the Highlands of Scotland. Around 60,000 speakers, with sustained revitalisation through Gaelic-medium education.

Wakhi

also: Wakhi Pamir

A Pamir Iranian language spoken across the Wakhan Corridor where Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, and China meet. One of the most archaic Iranian languages, retaining features of Old Iranian lost everywhere else.

Ruska Roma

also: Russian Romani, North Russian Romani, Xaladitka Roma

A Northern Romani variety spoken by the Ruska Roma across Russia and Ukraine, shaped by long and intensive contact with Russian. It was the basis of a short-lived literary standard developed in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s and remains one of the more vital Northern Romani dialects.