Google has cooperated with universities and linguistic organizations to begin documenting approximately 3,500 languages that are at risk of disappearing in the next 100 years, the company said on Thursday. Google has cooperated with universities and linguistic organizations to begin documenting approximately 3,500 languages that are at risk of disappearing in the next 100 years, the company said on Thursday. The development of the initiative, called the Endangered Languages Project, was overseen by Google and uses technology including Google Maps, YouTube and Google Groups to enable people to collaborate on recording, accessing and sharing samples of endangered languages.Twenty-nine organizations including the Museum of the Cherokee Indian and CBC Radio collaborated on the project and the information about the languages was provided by the Eastern Michigan University and the University of Hawaii at Manoa.The world today has approximately 7,000 languages and about half of them could disappear within a century, according to the project website. With every language that dies, humanity is in danger of losing an enormous cultural heritage, the site stresses. When a language vanishes, an understanding how humans relate to the world around them, scientific, medical and botanical knowledge as well as the expression of communities’ humor, love and life could be lost, according to the project. Through the new website users can find 3,054 endangered languages like Poitevin, spoken only by “a few elderly people” that live in the center of France or Koro, an endangered language spoken by about 1,000 people in India. While all the languages are mapped, not every language has an audio, video or text sample yet. Users are invited to upload samples of the uncovered languages.There are four endangered language categories: at risk, endangered, severely endangered and vitality unknown. The project will in the near future be led by “true experts in the field of language preservation,” according to the site. The oversight of the project will soon be handed off to the First Peoples’ Cultural Council and The Institute for Language Information and Technology at Eastern Michigan University.Loek covers all things tech for the IDG News Service. Follow him on Twitter at @loekessers or email tips and comments to loek_essers@idg.com Related content brandpost Sponsored by Freshworks When your AI chatbots mess up AI ‘hallucinations’ present significant business risks, but new types of guardrails can keep them from doing serious damage By Paul Gillin Dec 08, 2023 4 mins Generative AI brandpost Sponsored by Dell New research: How IT leaders drive business benefits by accelerating device refresh strategies Security leaders have particular concerns that older devices are more vulnerable to increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks. By Laura McEwan Dec 08, 2023 3 mins Infrastructure Management case study Toyota transforms IT service desk with gen AI To help promote insourcing and quality control, Toyota Motor North America is leveraging generative AI for HR and IT service desk requests. By Thor Olavsrud Dec 08, 2023 7 mins Employee Experience Generative AI ICT Partners feature CSM certification: Costs, requirements, and all you need to know The Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) certification sets the standard for establishing Scrum theory, developing practical applications and rules, and leading teams and stakeholders through the development process. By Moira Alexander Dec 08, 2023 8 mins Certifications IT Skills Project Management Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe