Of the 155 native languages in North America, only 20 are being actively learned by children, which means a majority of those languages could be in danger of extinction over the next century, Campbell says.

So efforts are under way around the United States to preserve native languages by teaching them and by creating dictionaries and grammar books.

But North American languages aren't the only ones in danger of being lost.

Two University of Utah students, Naomi Fox and Nancy Garcia, are researching and analyzing data from a family of Guatemalan languages called Xinca. Their research is leading to a comparative dictionary and grammar books to teach 30 Guatemalan students how to speak three languages that are spoken by a total of five people.

The Xinca languages, spoken in remote areas of Guatemala, have lost out mostly to Spanish, and the remaining speakers are aging and hard of hearing.

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