Anextinct language ordead language is alanguage with no livingnative speakers.[1][2] Adormant language is a dead language that still serves as a symbol of ethnic identity to anethnic group; these languages are often undergoing a process ofrevitalisation.[3] Languages that have first-language speakers are known asmodern or living languages to contrast them with dead languages, especially in educational contexts.
As of the 2000s, a total of roughly 7,000 natively spoken languages existed worldwide. Most of these are minor languages in danger of extinction; one estimate published in 2004 expected that some 90% of the languages spoken at that time will have become extinct by 2050.[7]
Sisters Maxine Wildcat Barnett (1925–2021) (left) and Josephine Wildcat Bigler (1921–2016);[8] two of the last elderly speakers ofYuchi, visiting their grandmother's grave in a cemetery behind Pickett Chapel inSapulpa,Oklahoma. According to the sisters, their grandmother had insisted that Yuchi be their native language.
After a language has ceased to be spoken as a first language, it may continue to exist as learned, second language, such asLatin.[10]
In a view that prioritizes written representation over natural language acquisition and evolution, historical languages with living descendants that have undergone significantlanguage change may be considered "extinct", especially in cases where they did not leave acorpus of literature or liturgy that remained in widespread use (seecorpus language), as is the case withOld English orOld High German relative to their contemporary descendants, English and German.[11] This is accomplished by periodizing English and German as Old; for Latin, an apt clarifying adjective is Classical, which also normally includes designation of high or formalregister.[12]
Minor languages are endangered mostly due to economic and culturalglobalization, cultural assimilation, and development. With increasing economic integration on national and regional scales, people find it easier to communicate and conduct business in the dominantlingua francas of world commerce: English,Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, and French.[13]
In their study of contact-induced language change, American linguists Sarah Grey Thomason andTerrence Kaufman (1991) stated that in situations of cultural pressure (where populations are forced to speak a dominant language), three linguistic outcomes may occur: first – and most commonly – a subordinate population may shift abruptly to the dominant language, leaving the native language to a sudden linguistic death. Second, the more gradual process oflanguage death may occur over several generations. The third and most rare outcome is for the pressured group to maintain as much of its native language as possible, while borrowing elements of the dominant language's grammar (replacing all, or portions of, the grammar of the original language).[14] A now disappeared language may leave a substantial trace as asubstrate in the language that replaces it. There have, however, also been cases where the language of higherprestige did not displace the native language but left asuperstrate influence. The French language for example shows evidence both of a Celtic substrate and a Frankish superstrate.
Institutions such as the education system, as well as (often global) forms of media such as the Internet, television, and print media play a significant role in the process of language loss.[13] For example, when people migrate to a new country, their children attend school in the country, and the schools are likely to teach them in the majority language of the country rather than their parents' native language.[15][16]
Language death can also be the explicit goal of government policy. For example, part of the "kill the Indian, save the man" policy ofAmerican Indian boarding schools and other measures was to prevent Native Americans from transmitting their native language to the next generation and to punish children who spoke the language of their culture of origin.[17][18][19] The Frenchvergonha policy likewise had the aim of eradicating minority languages.[20]
Language revival is the attempt to re-introduce an extinct language in everyday use by a new generation of native speakers. The optimisticneologism "sleeping beauty languages" has been used to express such a hope,[21] though scholars usually refer to such languages as dormant.
Revival attempts for minor extinct languages with no status as a liturgical language typically have more modest results. TheCornish language revival has proven at least partially successful: after a century of effort there are 3,500 claimed native speakers, enough for UNESCO to change its classification from "extinct" to "critically endangered". ALivonian language revival movement to promote the use of theLivonian language has managed to train a few hundred people to have some knowledge of it.[22]
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Sharp, Joanne. (2008). Chapter 6: 'Can the Subaltern Speak?', inGeographies of Postcolonialism. Glasgow, UK: SAGE Publications Ltd.ISBN978-1-4129-0779-8.
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