Atilingo builds the publishing and archival infrastructure for Indigenous African languages: by contributors and communities, for consumers everywhere.
476 of the 2,317+ languages on record have nothing published beyond a wordlist.
How much of each language has ever been written down. The stronger the dot, the less exists. The boldest are languages with nothing but a wordlist.
Recorded in Askira Uba, Borno State — a region living through active banditry and displacement. For this contributor, Kibaku isn't a hobby project: losing the language means losing the culture it carries.
Right now, somewhere in the world, a language is dying. Not in a dramatic, sudden way — but quietly, as the last fluent speakers grow older and pass away without anyone left to carry the language forward. Linguists estimate that of the roughly 7,000 languages spoken on Earth today, as many as 40% are at risk of disappearing within this century.
