European

Nations
There are fifty states in Europe and
nearly one hundred nations.
All languages are part of the world
heritage, however, the UNESCO Red
Book of Endangered Languages
listed nine European languages as
nearly extinct, twenty six as
seriously endangered and thirty
eight as endangered.
The Basque language is currently
listed as vulnerable in the Spanish
state (meaning that most children
speak the language, but it may be
restricted to certain domains e.g.,
home) and severely endangered in
the French state where it does not
have any official status (language is
spoken by grandparents and older
generations; while the parent
generation may understand it, they
do not speak it to children or among
themselves).
According to the UNESCO there are
about 3,000 languages spoken
worldwide among which 230
became extinct since 1950 at a rate
of almost four languages a year. But
the situation is currently even more
critical and the main causes are
almost in all cases political and
socioeconomic, indeed, more than
90 percent of the endangered
languages have not official status.