Ten African languages are gradually disappearing.

Languages serve as both communication tools and archives for cultural identity, tradition, and history.
But the rate at which many African languages are vanishing is startling. Some are only spoken by a small number of people and are in danger of going extinct, while others have already stopped being spoken and are now considered languages of the past.

Examining a few of these languages, this essay sheds light on the precarious situation of linguistic variety.

1. N|uu N|uu is one of the critically endangered click languages of South Africa. There are very few speakers in the Northern Cape region, and they are all very old.

2. Siwi
Siwi is a Berber language spoken by the Siwa community in a remote oasis in Egypt. Although it is still in use, its long-term survival is threatened by its seclusion and the growing impact of Arabic.

3. Laal
Speaks by only a few hundred people, Laal is a language spoken in a limited area of Chad. Since it is not closely related to other languages, it is much more important to preserve it.

4. Wichita
Not to be confused with the Wichita language of North America, Wichita is a language from Nigeria. With so few speakers left, it is seriously threatened.

5. Khoekhoegowab
Khoekhoegowab, a Khoisan language spoken in Namibia, is also referred to as Nama or Damara. It is one of Namibia’s official languages, but like many other indigenous languages, it has difficulties because of other languages that are more widely spoken.

6. Hadza
Click consonants are a distinctive feature of Hadza, a language spoken by the Hadzabe people of Tanzania. There are only 1,000–1,500 speakers of the language, making it endangered.

7. Sandawe

Similar to Hadza, Sandawe is a Tanzanian click language. Despite having over 40,000 speakers, social and economic factors make it vulnerable.

8. Kwadi Kwadi is currently thought to be extinct; it was formerly spoken in Angola. It shared similarities with the Khoe languages spoken in other southern African regions.