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Language death

In linguist ics, language death occurs when a language loses it s last nat ive speaker. By
ext ension, language extinction is when t he language is no longer known, including by second-
language speakers. Ot her similar t erms include linguicide,[1] t he deat h of a language from nat ural
or polit ical causes, and rarely glottophagy,[2] t he absorpt ion or replacement of a minor language
by a major language.

Hittite script on a clay tablet


The last three speakers of Magati Ke

Language deat h is a process in which t he level of a speech communit y's linguist ic compet ence in
t heir language variet y decreases, event ually result ing in no nat ive or fluent speakers of t he
variet y. Language deat h can affect any language form, including dialect s. Language deat h should
not be confused wit h language at t rit ion (also called language loss), which describes t he loss of
proficiency in a first language of an individual.[3]

In t he modern period (c. 1500 CE–present ; following t he rise of colonialism), language deat h has
t ypically result ed from t he process of cult ural assimilat ion leading t o language shift and t he
gradual abandonment of a nat ive language in favour of a foreign lingua franca, largely t hose of
European count ries.[4][5][6]

As of t he 2000s, a t ot al of roughly 7,000 nat ively spoken languages exist ed worldwide. Most of
t hese are minor languages in danger of ext inct ion; one est imat e published in 2004 expect ed t hat
some 90% of t he current ly spoken languages will have become ext inct by 2050.[7][8]

Types

Language deat h is t ypically t he final out come of language shift and may manifest it self in one of
t he following ways:

Gradual language deat h: t he most common way t hat languages die. Generally happens when
t he people speaking t hat language int eract wit h speakers of a language of higher prest ige.
This group of people first becomes bilingual, t hen wit h newer generat ions t he level of
proficiency decreases, and finally no nat ive speakers exist .

Bot t om-t o-t op language deat h: occurs when t he language st art s t o be used for only religious,
lit erary, ceremonial purposes, but not in casual cont ext . (As in Lat in.)

Top-t o-bot t om language deat h: happens when language shift begins in a high-level
environment such as t he government , but st ill cont inues t o be used in casual cont ext .
Radical language deat h: t he disappearance of a language when all speakers of t he language
cease t o speak t he language because of t hreat s, pressure, persecut ion, or colonisat ion.

Linguicide (also known as sudden deat h, language genocide, physical language deat h, and
biological language deat h): occurs when all or almost all nat ive speakers of t hat language die
because of nat ural disast ers, wars et c.

Language at t rit ion: t he loss of proficiency in a language at t he individual level.

The most common process leading t o language deat h is one in which a communit y of speakers
of one language becomes bilingual wit h anot her language, and gradually shift s allegiance t o t he
second language unt il t hey cease t o use t heir original, herit age language. This is a process of
assimilat ion which may be volunt ary or may be forced upon a populat ion. Speakers of some
languages, part icularly regional or minorit y languages, may decide t o abandon t hem because of
economic or ut ilit arian reasons, in favor of languages regarded as having great er ut ilit y or
prest ige.

Languages wit h a small, geographically isolat ed populat ion of speakers can die when t heir
speakers are wiped out by genocide, disease, or nat ural disast er.

Definition

A language is oft en declared t o be dead even before t he last nat ive speaker of t he language has
died. If t here are only a few elderly speakers of a language remaining, and t hey no longer use t hat
language for communicat ion, t hen t he language is effect ively dead. A language t hat has reached
such a reduced st age of use is generally considered moribund.[3] Half of t he spoken languages of
t he world are not being t aught t o new generat ions of children.[3] Once a language is no longer a
nat ive language—t hat is, if no children are being socialized int o it as t heir primary language—t he
process of t ransmission is ended and t he language it self will not survive past t he current
generat ions.

Language deat h is rarely a sudden event , but a slow process of each generat ion learning less and
less of t he language unt il it s use is relegat ed t o t he domain of t radit ional use, such as in poet ry
and song. Typically t he t ransmission of t he language from adult s t o children becomes more and
more rest rict ed, t o t he final set t ing t hat adult s speaking t he language will raise children who
never acquire fluency. One example of t his process reaching it s conclusion is t hat of t he
Dalmat ian language.

Consequences on grammar
During language loss—somet imes referred t o as obsolescence in t he linguist ic lit erat ure—t he
language t hat is being lost generally undergoes changes as speakers make t heir language more
similar t o t he language t o which t hey are shift ing. This process of change has been described by
Appel (1983) in t wo cat egories, t hough t hey are not mut ually exclusive. Oft en speakers replace
element s of t heir own language wit h somet hing from t he language t hey are shift ing t oward. Also,
if t heir herit age language has an element t hat t he new language does not , speakers may drop it .

overgeneralizat ion;

undergeneralizat ion;

loss of phonological cont rast s;

variabilit y;

changes in word order;

morphological loss, such as was seen in Scot t ish Gaelic in East Sut herland, Scot land (Dorian:
1978) as fluent speakers st ill used t he hist oric plural format ion, whereas semi-speakers used
simple suffixat ion or did not include any plural format ion at all;

synt het ic morphosynt ax may become increasingly analyt ic;

synt act ic loss (i.e. lexical cat egories, complex const ruct ions);

relexificat ion;

loss of word-format ion product ivit y;

st yle loss, such as t he loss of rit ual speech;[9]

morphological leveling;[10]

analogical leveling.

Health consequences for Indigenous communities

When a language dies, a complex loss occurs beyond speech, including connect ion t o ident it y
and well-being part icularly in Indigenous communit ies, as many Indigenous peoples’ ident it y,
aut onomy, and spirit ual sovereignt y are highly int erwoven wit h t heir connect ion t o t heir t radit ional
language. [11] Given t hat cult ural ident it y, language, and social t radit ions are deeply int erwoven,
language loss can be a fundament al fact or of ill healt h in Indigenous communit ies. [12]
The Nat ional Aboriginal Communit y Cont rolled Healt h Organizat ion (NACCHO) defines healt h as
not merely t he physical well-being of an individual but also as social, emot ional, and cult ural well-
being of t he whole communit y.[11] For Aboriginal communit ies in Aust ralia, language loss, as part
of broad colonial at t empt s at cult uricide, is part of a cult ural loss t hat plays a key role in ongoing
int ergenerat ional t rauma reinforcing healt h inequit y. Linguicide plays an act ive role in ongoing
int ergenerat ional t rauma of t he St olen Generat ions, which is known t o negat ively impact ment al
healt h, and is implicat ed in high suicide rat es. [13]

Similar forced assimilat ion pract ices inst rument al in colonial linguicide such as removal of children
t o resident ial schools have creat ed language loss in Indigenous communit ies around t he world.
As a consequence Indigenous peoples experience height ened negat ive ment al healt h effect s,
such as subst ance abuse, t rauma, and depression.[12] A st udy conduct ed on Aboriginal yout h
suicide rat es in Canada found t hat Indigenous communit ies in which a majorit y of members speak
t he t radit ional language exhibit low suicide rat es. Cont rary, suicide rat es were six t imes higher in
groups where less t han half of it s members communicat e in t heir ancest ral language.[14]

Many Indigenous communit ies t ake on a holist ic view of healt h, in which a connect ion t o cult ure
and language is essent ial t o well-being. Toget her, cult ure and language build t he foundat ion of a
collect ive ident it y.[15] Thus, language deat h can have severe effect s on healt h.

Language revitalization

Language revit alizat ion is an at t empt t o slow or reverse language deat h.[16] Revit alizat ion
programs are ongoing in many languages, and have had varying degrees of success.

The revival of t he Hebrew language in Israel is t he only example of a language's acquiring new
first language speakers aft er it became ext inct in everyday use for an ext ended period, being
used only as a lit urgical language.[17] Even in t he case of Hebrew, t here is a t heory t hat argues
t hat "t he Hebrew revivalist s who wished t o speak pure Hebrew failed. The result is a fascinat ing
and mult ifacet ed Israeli language, which is not only mult i-layered but also mult i-sourced. The
revival of a clinically dead language is unlikely wit hout cross-fert ilizat ion from t he revivalist s'
mot her t ongue(s)."[18]

Ot her cases of language revit alizat ion which have seen some degree of success are Irish, Welsh,
Basque, Hawaiian, Cherokee and Navajo.

As a response t o English linguist ic dominance, de-anglicisat ion became a mat t er of nat ional pride
in some places and especially in regions t hat were once under colonial rule, where vest iges of
colonial dominat ion are a sensit ive subject .[19][20] Following cent uries of English rule in Ireland and
English imposit ion of t he English language, an argument for de-anglicizat ion was delivered before
t he Irish Nat ional Lit erary Societ y in Dublin, 25 November 1892; "When we speak of 'The
Necessit y for De-Anglicising t he Irish Nat ion', we mean it , not as a prot est against imit at ing what
is best in t he English people, for t hat would be absurd, but rat her t o show t he folly of neglect ing
what is Irish, and hast ening t o adopt , pell-mell, and indiscriminat ely, everyt hing t hat is English,
simply because it is English."[19] Language was one of t he feat ures of Anglicisat ion in Ireland:
alt hough it never died out and became an official language aft er independence, Irish had lost it s
st at us as t he island's principal vernacular t o become a minorit y language during t he period of
Brit ish rule; similarly, in Nort h America indigenous languages have been replaced by t hose of t he
colonist s.

According t o Ghil'ad Zuckermann, "language reclamat ion will become increasingly relevant as
people seek t o recover t heir cult ural aut onomy, empower t heir spirit ual and int ellect ual
sovereignt y, and improve wellbeing. There are various et hical, aest het ic, and ut ilit arian benefit s of
language revival—for example, hist orical just ice, diversit y, and employabilit y, respect ively."[1]

Factors that prevent language death

Google launched t he Endangered Languages Project aimed at helping preserve languages t hat
are at risk of ext inct ion. It s goal is t o compile up-t o-dat e informat ion about endangered
languages and share t he lat est research about t hem.

Ant hropologist Akira Yamamot o has ident ified nine fact ors t hat he believes will help prevent
language deat h:[21]

1. There must be a dominant cult ure t hat favors linguist ic diversit y

2. The endangered communit y must possess an et hnic ident it y t hat is st rong enough t o
encourage language preservat ion

3. The creat ion and promot ion of programs t hat educat e st udent s on t he endangered
language and cult ure

4. The creat ion of school programs t hat are bot h bilingual and bicult ural

5. For nat ive speakers t o receive t eacher t raining

6. The endangered speech communit y must be complet ely involved

7. There must be language mat erials creat ed t hat are easy t o use
8. The language must have writ t en mat erials t hat encompass new and t radit ional cont ent

9. The language must be used in new environment s and t he areas t he language is used (bot h
old and new) must be st rengt hened

Dead languages

Linguist s dist inguish bet ween language "deat h" and t he process where a language becomes a
"dead language" t hrough normal language change, a linguist ic phenomenon analogous t o
pseudoext inct ion. This happens when a language in t he course of it s normal development
gradually morphs int o somet hing t hat is t hen recognized as a separat e, different language,
leaving t he old form wit h no nat ive speakers. Thus, for example, Old English may be regarded as a
"dead language" alt hough it changed and developed int o Middle English, Early Modern English and
Modern English. Dialect s of a language can also die, cont ribut ing t o t he overall language deat h.
For example, t he Ainu language is slowly dying - "The UNESCO At las of t he World's Languages in
Danger list s Hokkaido Ainu as crit ically endangered wit h 15 speakers ... and bot h Sakhalin and Kuril
Ainu as ext inct ."[22]

Language change

The process of language change may also involve t he split t ing up of a language int o a family of
several daught er languages, leaving t he common parent language "dead". This has happened t o
Lat in, which (t hrough Vulgar Lat in) event ually developed int o t he Romance languages, and t o
Sanskrit , which (t hrough Prakrit ) developed int o t he New Indo-Aryan languages. Such a process is
normally not described as "language deat h", because it involves an unbroken chain of normal
t ransmission of t he language from one generat ion t o t he next , wit h only minut e changes at every
single point in t he chain. Thus wit h regard t o Lat in, for example, t here is no point at which Lat in
"died"; it evolved in different ways in different geographic areas, and it s modern forms are now
ident ified by a plet hora of different names such as French, Port uguese, Spanish, It alian, et c.

Measuring language vitality

Except in case of linguicide, languages do not suddenly become ext inct ; t hey become moribund
as t he communit y of speakers gradually shift s t o using ot her languages. As speakers shift , t here
are discernible, if subt le, changes in language behavior. These changes in behavior lead t o a
change of linguist ic vit alit y in t he communit y. There are a variet y of syst ems t hat have been
proposed for measuring t he vit alit y of a language in a communit y. One of t he earliest is t he GIDS
(Graded Int ergenerat ional Disrupt ion Scale) proposed by Joshua Fishman in 1991.[23] A
not ewort hy publishing milest one in measuring language vit alit y is an ent ire issue of Journal of
Multilingual and Multicultural Development devot ed t o t he st udy of et hnolinguist ic vit alit y, Vol.
32.2, 2011, wit h several aut hors present ing t heir own t ools for measuring language vit alit y. A
number of ot her published works on measuring language vit alit y have been published, prepared by
aut hors wit h varying sit uat ions and applicat ions in mind. These include works by Arienne Dwyer,[24]
Mart in Ehala,[25] M. Lynne Landwehr,[26] Mark Karan,[27] András Kornai,[28] and Paul Lewis and Gary
Simons.[29]

See also

Classical language Language shift

Cult ural genocide Lingua Libre

Cult ural hegemony Linguist ic discriminat ion

Endangered language Linguist ic imperialism


List s of endangered languages
Linguist ic purism
Et hnocide
Linguist ic right s
Ext inct language
List of last known speakers of languages
List s of ext inct languages
Minorit y language
Int ernat ional auxiliary language
Nat ive Tongue Tit le
Language cont act
Prest ige language
Language movement
Regional language
Language policy
Roset t a Project
Language revit alizat ion
The Linguists (document ary film)

References

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8. Graddol, D. (2004-02-27). "The Future of Language" (https://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1096546) .


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9. Knowles-Berry, Susan (Winter 1987). "Linguistic decay in Chontal Mayan: the speech of semi-speakers".
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08) .

10. Dorian, Nancy C. (September 1978). "Fate of morphological complexity in language death: Evidence
from East Sutherland Gaelic". Language. 54 (3): 590–609. doi:10.1353/lan.1978.0024 (https://doi.org/
10.1353%2Flan.1978.0024) . JSTOR 412788 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/412788) .
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11. Sivak, L., Westhead, S., Richards, E., Atkinson, S., Richards, J., Dare, H., Zuckermann, G., Gee, G., Wright,
M., Rosen, et al. (2019). “Language Breathes Life” – Barngarla Community Perspectives on the
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Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(20)
12. Khawaja, M. (2021). Consequences and Remedies of Indigenous Language Loss in Canada. Societies,
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14. Hallett, D., Chandler, M.J., & Lalonde, C.E. (2007). Aboriginal language knowledge and youth suicide.
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Journal for Equity in Health, 13(92).

16. Pine, Aidan; Turin, Mark (2017-03-29). "Language Revitalization". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of
Linguistics (http://oxfordre.com/linguistics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.001.0001/acrefore-
9780199384655-e-8) . Vol. 1. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.013.8 (h
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y/0,25197,25980525-25192,00.html) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20090923233756/http://
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on Ainu and Saami". Studia Orientalia Electronica. 117: 429–267.

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Further reading

Abley, Mark. (2003). Spoken here: Travels among threatened languages. London: Heinemann.

Aitchinson, Jean. (1991). Language change: progress or decay? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bastardas-Boada, Albert (2007). "Linguistic sustainability for a multilingual humanity" (https://web.arc


hive.org/web/20071201001352/http://bibliotecavirtualut.suagm.edu/Glossa/Journal/jun2007/Linguisti
c%20Sustainability%20for%20a%20Multilingual%20Humanity.pdf) , Glossa. An Interdisciplinary
Journal, vol. 2, num. 2.

Batibo, Herman M. (2005). Language decline and death in Africa: Causes, consequences, and challenges.
Multilingual Matters.

Brenzinger, Matthias (Ed.). (1992). Language death: Factual and theoretical explorations with special
reference to East Africa. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

Brenzinger, Matthais (Ed.). (1998). Endangered languages in Africa. Cologne: Rüdiger Köper Verlag.

Broderick, George. (1999). Language Death in the Isle of Man. Tübingen: Niemeyer. ISBN 3-484-30395-6.

Calvet, Louis-Jean. (1998). Language wars and linguistic politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Campbell, Lyle. (1994). Language death. In R. E. Asher (Ed.), The Encyclopedia of language and linguistics
(pp. 1960–1968). Oxford: Pergamon Press.

Campbell, Lyle; & Muntzel, M. (1989). The structural consequences of language death. In N. C. Dorian
(Ed.).

Cantoni-Harvey, Gina (Ed.). (1997). Stabilizing indigenous languages. Flagstaff, AZ: Northern Arizona
University, Center for Excellence in Education.

Crystal, David. (2000). Language death. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-65321-5.
Crystal, David. (2004). Language revolution. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Cyr, Christine. (2008). "How Do You Learn a Dead Language? (http://www.slate.com/id/2182949/) ".
Slate.

Dalby, Andrew. (2003). Language in danger: The loss of linguistic diversity and the threat to our future.
New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-12900-9.

Dixon, R. M. W. (1997). The rise and fall of languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Dorian, Nancy C. (1973). Grammatical change in a dying dialect. Language, 49, 413-438.

Dorian, Nancy C. (1978). The fate of morphological complexity in language death: Evidence from East
Sutherland Gaelic. Language, 54 (3), 590-609.

Dorian, Nancy C. (1981). Language death: The life cycle of a Scottish Gaelic dialect. Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press.

Dorian, Nancy C. (Ed.). (1989). Investigating obsolescence: Studies in language contraction and death.
Studies in the social and cultural foundations of language (No. 7). Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press. ISBN 0-521-32405-X.

Dressler, Wolfgand & Wodak-Leodolter, Ruth (eds.) (1977) Language death (International Journal of
the Sociology of Language vol. 12). The Hague: Mouton.

Fishman, Joshua A. (1991). Reversing language shift: Theoretical and empirical foundations of assistance
to threatened languages. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Grenoble, Lenore A.; & Whaley, Lindsay J. (Eds.). (1998). Endangered languages: Current issues and
future prospects. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hagège, Claude. (1992). Le souffle de la langue. Paris: Odile Jacob.

Hagège, Claude. (2000). Halte à la mort des langues. Paris: Editions Odille Jacob.

Hale, Ken; Krauss, Michael; Watahomigie, Lucille J.; Yamamoto, Akira Y.; Craig, Colette; Jeanne,
LaVerne M. et al. (1992). Endangered languages. Language, 68 (1), 1-42.

Harmon, David. (2002). In light of our differences: How diversity in nature and culture makes us human.
Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.

Harrison, K. David. (2007) When Languages Die: The Extinction of the World's Languages and the
Erosion of Human Knowledge. New York and London: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-518192-1.

Hazaël-Massieux, Marie-Christine. (1999). Les créoles: L'indispensable survie. Paris: Editions Entente.

Hill, Jane. (1983). Language death in Uto-Aztecan. International Journal of American Linguistics, 49,
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External links

Lost Tongues and t he Polit ics of Language Endangerment (ht t ps://web.archive.org/web/2005


1001033114/ht t p://www.fat hom.com/feat ure/122144/)

Languages don't kill languages; speakers do (ht t p://magazine.uchicago.edu/0012/feat ures/muf


wene.ht ml)

Language endangerment : What have pride & prest ige got t o do wit h It ? (ht t p://humanit ies.uchi
cago.edu/facult y/mufwene/langenda.pdf) (pdf)

Language birt h & deat h (ht t p://humanit ies.uchicago.edu/facult y/mufwene/LANGUAGE%20BIR


TH%20&%20DEATH.pdf) (pdf)

Globalizat ion & t he Myt h of Killer Languages: What ’s Really Going on? (ht t p://humanit ies.uchica
go.edu/facult y/mufwene/publicat ions/globalizat ion-killerLanguages.pdf) (pdf)

Wall St reet Journal on language deat h (ht t p://www.opinionjournal.com/t ast e/?id=105001735)

Int ernat ional Symposium on "Linguist ic Right s in t he World: The current sit uat ion" (ht t p://www.li
nguist ic-right s.org/en/) , Unit ed Nat ions, Geneva, 24 April 2008

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