Language extinction

At the moment, there are between six and seven thousand languages in the world. According to linguists, fifty percent of these are in danger [blank] extinct. The speed of language loss has accelerated over the past few decades because businesses that need to communicate with a range of people from other cultures [blank] to employ more widely used languages, such as English, Chinese, or Spanish. This attitude is understandable, but it means that many local languages are dying out before anyone [blank] the opportunity to study them. According to linguists, some of these languages could reveal a great [blank] of useful information about language learning and cognitive development. In addition, a local language that has been built on the local culture contains words and phrases that express that culture; lose the language and you arguably may lose the culture, too. And finally, historians will [blank] that a language contains evidence of a region's history and should, for that reason alone, be preserved.