Genocide is a word that has a lot of nasty connotations, and it is not normally associated with language or culture, however it would be one of only a handful of words to describe what is happening to some languages and dialects around the world. As both distinct languages as well as sub dialects, which are only a hairs breadth away, fade away as the last speakers die out.

Nepal in particular makes a good case study for this, in 2001 a census showed that there was over 90 languages belonging to over 100 ethnic or caste groups, the majority of Nepalese people speak one of two languages, Nepali and Maithili, the rest of them account for only 8% of the populous. And these figures are declining, as younger people don't learn the local and cultural languages then it is easy to see how that strain will die out.

Part of the problem can be attributed to the schooling system which simply does not include these lesser spoken tongues in the taught curriculum, but also there is a wider, global, concern that some of these languages should be recorded and cherished.