French is one of the official languages of the United Nations, the European Union, and 29 other countries, including Haiti and Rwanda. Over 40% of its vocabulary has influenced the English language.

As of 2025, the world is home to more than 7,000 spoken languages, reflecting the incredible diversity of human culture and communication. Yet despite this vast number, only a small fraction of these ...

Dots on the maps in this piece represent, among other things, efforts to revitalize a language as well as communities of speakers. Most people think of endangered languages as far-flung or exotic, the ...