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minority language
Sign in to savelanguage spoken by a minority of the population of a territory
A minority language is one spoken by a smaller portion of people in a particular area, rather than by the majority population. These languages matter because they represent distinct cultural identities and ways of understanding the world that can be lost if they aren't actively preserved and used.
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- Linguistic minorities
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A minority language is a language spoken by a minority of the population of a territory. Such people are termed linguistic minorities or language minorities. With a total number of 196 sovereign states recognized internationally (as of 2019) and an estimated number of roughly 5,000 to 7,000 languages spoken worldwide, the vast majority of languages are minority languages in every country in which they are spoken. Some minority languages are simultaneously also official languages, such as Irish in Ireland or the numerous indigenous languages of Bolivia. Likewise, some national languages are often considered minority languages, insofar as they are the national language of a stateless nation.
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