Look who's talking.

• Position: GRAPH: NATIONAL - Brief article

The article "Rescue Mission" [p. 12 of the magazine] details efforts to revive some Native American Languages in the U.S. According to the Linguistic resource Ethnologue, there are 6,909 Languages worldwide spoken as a "mother tongue"--the primary Language in the home. In the past five years, 163 additional Languages have been identified in the Ethnologue and 166 Languages have been removed: 75 have merged with other Languages, and 91 have no remaining speakers.

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ANALYZE THE GRAPH

(1) The total number of primary Languages spoken in the three North American countries shown on the graph is equal to the number of primary Languages spoken in--.

a India

b Nigeria

c Indonesia

d Papua New Guinea

(2) Of the primary Languages spoken in the United States, 176 of them--roughly--are indigenous languages, spoken by Native Americans,

a half

b a third

c a fourth

d a fifth

(3) Indonesia has about four times the number of primary Languages as--.

a the U.S.

b Cameroon

c the Philippines

d Malaysia

(4) Papua New Guinea has a speaking population of about 3.8 million, and the Languages spoken there are all. indigenous to the country. The average number of speakers of each is

a 3,200.

b 3,800.

c 4,600.

d 5,000.

(5) Across Afghanistan, 52 primary Languages are spoken, about--percent of the number of primary Languages spoken in China.

a 15

b 20

c 25

d 30

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

(1) The Ethnologue differentiates between...