A professor of language says he believes digital tools and online content will be the ‘salvation’ of many endangered dialects.
David Harrison, an associate professor of linguistics at Swarthmore College and a National Geographic Fellow, told the BBC that Facebook, YouTube and even texting help preserve languages, as young people in particular use them to learn about rare languages.
"It's what I like to call the flipside of globalisation,” he said.
“A positive effect of globalisation is that you can have a language that is spoken by only five or 50 people in one remote location, and now through digital technology that language can achieve a global voice and a global audience."
Rare languages are kept alive via online content, while some websites include audio to help with pronunciation.
Communities and tribes with rare dialects are often heavy users of Facebook and keep the language alive with online communities.
There are also various smartphone apps to help teach people endangered languages. Tuvan, an indigenous tongue spoken by nomadic peoples in Siberia and Mongolia, is available to download as an iPhone app.
Mr Harrison himself has joined forces with National Geographic to produce eight talking dictionaries, containing more than 32,000 word entries by native speakers, in eight rare languages.
Alfred "Bud" Lane speaks a language known as Siletz Dee-ni, which is restricted to a small area on the central Oregon coast, and has recorded 14,000 words for the online dictionary.
"Nothing takes the place of speakers speaking to other speakers, but this bridges a gap that was just sorely needed in our community and our tribe,” Mr Lane said.
