David Peat's article on language and physics (5 January, p 42) was most timely, given that languages are going extinct at roughly one per fortnight. About 5000 distinct languages remain, but comprise only a few dozen unrelated groups.
Languages such as Algonquin, Gilyak (spoken in Outer Manchuria) or Nama (spoken in Namibia) contain treasures of knowledge from botany to medicine, from psychology to cooking, every bit as entrancing as Algonquin insights into Einsteinian mechanics. Most of this will be irretrievably lost unless some effort is made to support continued native use of endangered languages.
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