Jakarta – Only 10 percent of the nation's local languages will survive by the end of the century, according to a researcher.

Abdul Rachman Patji, the head of a social and cultural research center at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said that up to 169 local languages would likely become extinct due to lack of use. Abdul cited urbanization and inter-ethnic marriages as the two main factors causing the decline.

"People who stay in a big city and have to interact with other people from different backgrounds will likely use Indonesian to communicate," Abdul said on Wednesday as quoted by tribunnews.com. "Parents also don't actively teach their children to speak local dialects anymore," he added.

Inferiority complexes, economic status, a person's relationship with his or her past and tradition also contributed to the decrease in language use.

Abdul urged the government to balance the use of Indonesian and local languages in school to keep local dialects alive, "because the extinction of a language means the end of human civilization," he said.