An extinct language is a language with no living descendants that no longer has any first-language or second-language speakers. [1] [2] In contrast, a dead language is a language that no longer has any first-language speakers, but does have second-language speakers or is used fluently in written form, such as Latin. [3] A dormant language is a dead language that still serves as a symbol of ethnic identity to an ethnic group; these languages are often undergoing a process of revitalisation. [4] Languages that have first-language speakers are known as modern or living languages to contrast them with dead languages, especially in educational contexts.
In the modern period, languages have typically become extinct as a result of the process of cultural assimilation leading to language shift, and the gradual abandonment of a native language in favor of a foreign lingua franca , largely those of European countries. [5] [6] [7]
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 currently spoken languages will have become extinct by 2050. [8]
This section needs additional citations for verification .(June 2023) |
Normally the transition from a spoken to an extinct language occurs when a language undergoes language death by being directly replaced by a different one. For example, many Native American languages were replaced by Dutch, English, French, Portuguese, or Spanish as a result of European colonization of the Americas.[ citation needed ]
In contrast to an extinct language, which no longer has any speakers, or any written use, a historical language may remain in use as a literary or liturgical language long after it ceases to be spoken natively. Such languages are sometimes also referred to as "dead languages", but more typically as classical languages. The most prominent Western example of such a language is Latin, and comparable cases are found throughout world history due to the universal tendency to retain a historical stage of a language as the liturgical language.[ citation needed ]
In a view that prioritizes written representation over natural language acquisition and evolution, historical languages with living descendants that have undergone significant language change may be considered "extinct", especially in cases where they did not leave a corpus of literature or liturgy that remained in widespread use (see corpus language), as is the case with Old English or Old High German relative to their contemporary descendants, English and German.[ citation needed ]
Some degree of misunderstanding can result from designating languages such as Old English and Old High German as extinct, or Latin dead, while ignoring their evolution as a language or as many languages. This is expressed in the apparent paradox "Latin is a dead language, but Latin never died." A language such as Etruscan, for example, can be said to be both extinct and dead: inscriptions are ill understood even by the most knowledgeable scholars, and the language ceased to be used in any form long ago, so that there have been no speakers, native or non-native, for many centuries. In contrast, Old English, Old High German and Latin never ceased evolving as living languages, thus they did not become extinct as Etruscan did. Through time Latin underwent both common and divergent changes in phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon, and continues today as the native language of hundreds of millions of people, renamed as different Romance languages and dialects (French, Italian, Spanish, Corsican, Asturian, Ladin, etc.). Similarly, Old English and Old High German never died, but developed into various forms of modern English and German, as well as other related tongues still spoken (e.g. Scots from Old English and Yiddish from Old High German). With regard to the written language, skills in reading or writing Etruscan are all but non-existent, but trained people can understand and write Old English, Old High German, and Latin. Latin differs from the Germanic counterparts in that an approximation of its ancient form is still employed to some extent liturgically. This last observation illustrates that for Latin, Old English, or Old High German to be described accurately as dead or extinct, the language in question must be conceptualized as frozen in time at a particular state of its history. 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 formal register.[ citation needed ]
Minor languages are endangered mostly due to economic and cultural globalization, cultural assimilation, and development. With increasing economic integration on national and regional scales, people find it easier to communicate and conduct business in the dominant lingua francas of world commerce: English, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, and French. [10]
In their study of contact-induced language change, American linguists Sarah Grey Thomason and Terrence 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 of language 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). [11] A now disappeared language may leave a substantial trace as a substrate in the language that replaces it. There have, however, also been cases where the language of higher prestige did not displace the native language but left a superstrate 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. [10] 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.[ citation needed ]
Language death can also be the explicit goal of government policy. For example, part of the "kill the Indian, save the man" policy of American 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. [12] [13] [14] The French vergonha policy likewise had the aim of eradicating minority languages. [15]
Language revival is the attempt to re-introduce an extinct language in everyday use by a new generation of native speakers. The optimistic neologism "sleeping beauty languages" has been used to express such a hope, [16] though scholars usually refer to such languages as dormant.
In practice, this has only happened on a large scale successfully once: the revival of the Hebrew language. Hebrew had survived for millennia since the Babylonian exile as a liturgical language, but not as a vernacular language. The revival of Hebrew has been largely successful due to extraordinarily favourable conditions, notably the creation of a nation state (modern Israel in 1948) in which it became the official language, as well as Eliezer Ben-Yehuda's extreme dedication to the revival of the language, by creating new words for the modern terms Hebrew lacked.
Revival attempts for minor extinct languages with no status as a liturgical language typically have more modest results. The Cornish 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". A Livonian language revival movement to promote the use of the Livonian language has managed to train a few hundred people to have some knowledge of it. [17]
This is a list of languages reported as having become extinct since 2010. For a more complete list, see Lists of extinct languages.
Date | Language | Language family | Region | Terminal speaker | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2 May 2023 | Columbia-Moses language | Salishan | Washington (state), United States | Pauline Stensgar [18] | |
5 October 2022 | Mednyj Aleut | Mixed Aleut–Russian | Commander Islands, Russia | Gennady Yakovlev [19] | |
16 February 2022 | Yahgan | Isolated | Magallanes, Chile | Cristina Calderón [20] | |
25 September 2021 | Wukchumni dialect of Tule-Kaweah Yokuts | Yok-Utian (proposed) | California, United States | Marie Wilcox [21] | |
27 August 2021 | Yuchi | Isolated | Tennessee (formerly), Oklahoma, United States | Maxine Wildcat Barnett [22] | |
7 March 2021 | Bering Aleut | Eskimo-Aleut | Kamchatka Krai, Russia | Vera Timoshenko [23] | |
2 February 2021 | Juma | Kawahiva | Rondônia, Brazil | Aruka Juma [24] | |
2 December 2020 | Tuscarora | Iroquoian | North Carolina, United States | Kenneth Patterson [25] | |
4 April 2020 | Aka-Cari | Great Andamanese | Andaman Islands, India | Licho [26] | |
23 March 2019 | Ngandi | Arnhem | Northern Territory, Australia | C. W. Daniels [27] [28] | |
4 January 2019 | Tehuelche | Chonan | Patagonia, Argentina | Dora Manchado [29] [30] | |
9 December 2016 | Mandan | Siouan | North Dakota, United States | Edwin Benson [31] | |
30 August 2016 | Wichita | Caddoan | Oklahoma, United States | Doris McLemore [32] | |
29 July 2016 | Gugu Thaypan | Pama-Nyungan | Queensland, Australia | Tommy George [33] | |
11 February 2016 | Nuchatlaht dialect of Nuu-chah-nulth | Wakashan | British Columbia, Canada | Alban Michael [34] | |
4 January 2016 | Whulshootseed | Salishan | Washington, United States | Ellen Williams [35] [36] | |
4 February 2014 | Klallam | Salishan | Washington, United States | Hazel Sampson [37] [38] [notes 1] | |
By 2014 | Demushbo | Panoan | Amazon Basin, Brazil | ||
By 2014 | Sarghulami | Iranian | Badakhshan | [39] | |
5 June 2013 | Livonian | Uralic > Finnic | Latvia | Grizelda Kristiņa [40] [notes 2] | Under a process of revival. [41] |
26 March 2013 | Yurok | Algic | California, United States | Archie Thompson [42] | Under a process of revival. [43] |
By 2013 | Sabüm | Mon–Khmer | Perak, Malaysia | 2013 extinction is based on ISO changing it from living to extinct in 2013 | |
2 October 2012 | Cromarty dialect of Scots | Germanic | Northern Scotland, United Kingdom | Bobby Hogg [44] | |
11 July 2012 | Upper Chinook | Chinookan | Oregon, United States | Gladys Thompson [45] | |
10 March 2012 | Holikachuk | Na-Dene | Alaska, United States | Wilson "Tiny" Deacon [46] | |
c. 2012 | Dhungaloo | Pama-Nyungan | Queensland, Australia | Roy Hatfield [47] | |
c. 2012 | Ngasa | Nilo-Saharan | Tanzania | Most speakers have shifted to Chaga | |
by 2012 | Mardijker | Portuguese-based Creole | Jakarta, Indonesia | Oma Mimi Abrahams [48] | |
10 April 2011 | Apiaká | Tupian | Mato Grosso, Brazil | Pedrinho Kamassuri [49] | |
2011 | Lower Arrernte | Pama-Nyungan | Northern Territory, Australia | Brownie Doolan Perrurle [50] | |
by 2011 | Anserma | Chocoan | Antioquia Department, Colombia | ||
24 October 2010 | Pazeh | Austronesian | Taiwan | Pan Jin-yu [51] | |
20 August 2010 | Cochin Indo-Portuguese Creole | Portuguese-based Creole | Southern India | William Rozario [51] | |
26 January 2010 | Aka-Bo | Andamanese | Andaman Islands, India | Boa Sr. [52] |
There are over 250 languages indigenous to Europe, and most belong to the Indo-European language family. Out of a total European population of 744 million as of 2018, some 94% are native speakers of an Indo-European language. The three largest phyla of the Indo-European language family in Europe are Romance, Germanic, and Slavic; they have more than 200 million speakers each, and together account for close to 90% of Europeans.
Ethnologue: Languages of the World is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensive catalogue of languages. It was first issued in 1951, and is now published by SIL International, an American evangelical Christian non-profit organization.
An endangered language or moribund language is a language that is at risk of disappearing as its speakers die out or shift to speaking other languages. Language loss occurs when the language has no more native speakers and becomes a "dead language". If no one can speak the language at all, it becomes an "extinct language". A dead language may still be studied through recordings or writings, but it is still dead or extinct unless there are fluent speakers. Although languages have always become extinct throughout human history, they are currently dying at an accelerated rate because of globalization, mass migration, cultural replacement, imperialism, neocolonialism and linguicide.
English, in various dialects, is the most widely spoken language of the United Kingdom, but a number of regional and migrant languages are also spoken. Regional languages are Scots and Ulster Scots and the Celtic languages, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh and, as a revived language with few speakers, Cornish. British Sign Language is also used. There are also many languages spoken by immigrants who arrived recently to the United Kingdom, mainly within inner city areas; these languages are mainly from continental Europe and South Asia.
Language revitalization, also referred to as language revival or reversing language shift, is an attempt to halt or reverse the decline of a language or to revive an extinct one. Those involved can include linguists, cultural or community groups, or governments. Some argue for a distinction between language revival and language revitalization. There has only been one successful instance of a complete language revival: that of the Hebrew language.
There are some 130 to 195 languages spoken in the Philippines, depending on the method of classification. Almost all are Malayo-Polynesian languages native to the archipelago. A number of Spanish-influenced creole varieties generally called Chavacano along with some local varieties of Chinese are also spoken in certain communities. The 1987 constitution designates Filipino, a standardized version of Tagalog, as the national language and an official language along with English. Filipino is regulated by Commission on the Filipino Language and serves as a lingua franca used by Filipinos of various ethnolinguistic backgrounds.
In linguistics, language death occurs when a language loses its last native speaker. By extension, language extinction is when the language is no longer known, including by second-language speakers, when it becomes known as an extinct language. A related term is linguicide, the death of a language from natural or political causes, and, rarely, glottophagy, the absorption or replacement of a minor language by a major language.
Judaeo-Romance languages are Jewish languages derived from Romance languages, spoken by various Jewish communities originating in regions where Romance languages predominate, and altered to such an extent to gain recognition as languages in their own right. The status of many Judaeo-Romance languages is controversial as, despite manuscripts preserving transcriptions of Romance languages using the Hebrew alphabet, there is often little-to-no evidence that these "dialects" were actually spoken by Jews living in the various European nations.
The languages of Ethiopia include the official languages of Ethiopia, its national and regional languages, and a large number of minority languages, as well as foreign languages.
Diyari or Dieri is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken by the Diyari people in the far north of South Australia, to the east of Lake Eyre. It was studied by German Lutheran missionaries who translated Christian works into the language in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, so that it developed an extensive written form. Only a few fluent speakers of Diyari remained by the early 21st century, but a dictionary and grammar of the language was produced by linguist Peter K. Austin, and there is a project under way to teach it in schools.
Language preservation is the preservation of endangered or dead languages. With language death, studies in linguistics, anthropology, prehistory and psychology lose diversity. As history is remembered with the help of historic preservation, language preservation maintains dying or dead languages for future studies in such fields. Organizations such as 7000 Languages and the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages document and teach endangered languages as a way of preserving languages. Sometimes parts of languages are preserved in museums, such as tablets containing Cuneiform writing from Mesopotamia. Additionally, dictionaries have been published to help keep record of languages, such as the Kalapuya dictionary published by the Siletz tribe in Oregon.
The official language of Nicaragua is Spanish; however, Nicaraguans on the Caribbean coast speak indigenous languages and also English. The communities located on the Caribbean coast also have access to education in their native languages. Additionally, Nicaragua has four extinct indigenous languages.
Arandic is a family of Australian Aboriginal languages consisting of several languages or dialect clusters, including the Arrernte group, Lower Arrernte, Pertame language and Kaytetye.
Within the linguistic study of endangered languages, sociolinguists distinguish between different speaker types based on the type of competence they have acquired of the endangered language. Often when a community is gradually shifting away from an endangered language to a majority language, not all speakers acquire full linguistic competence; instead, speakers have varying degrees and types of competence depending on their exposure to the minority language in their upbringing. The relevance of speaker types in cases of language shift was first noted by Nancy Dorian, who coined the term semi-speaker to refer to those speakers of Sutherland Gaelic who were predominantly English-speaking and whose Gaelic competence was limited and showed considerable influence from English. Later studies added additional speaker types such as rememberers, and passive speakers. In the context of language revitalization, new speakers who have learned the endangered language as a second language are sometimes distinguished.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link). Ethnologue records 7,358 living languages known, "Ethnologue". Ethnologue. Archived from the original on 5 October 2001. Retrieved 22 March 2012. but on 2015-05-20, Ethnologue reported only 7,102 known living languages; and on 2015-02-23, Ethnologue already reported only 7,097 known living languages.