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| Language Endangerment Status | |
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| Extinct (EX) | |
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| Endangered | |
| Safe | |
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Other categories | |
Related topics | |
 UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger categories | |
This is a list of extinct languages of Africa , languages which have undergone language death, have no native speakers and no spoken descendant. There are 69 languages listed.
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.
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.
An extinct language or dead language is a language with no living native speakers. 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. Languages that have first-language speakers are known as modern or living languages to contrast them with dead languages, especially in educational contexts.
Ethio-Semitic is a family of languages spoken in Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Sudan. They form the western branch of the South Semitic languages, itself a sub-branch of Semitic, part of the Afroasiatic language family.
The Asa (Aasá) language, commonly rendered Aasax, is an extinct Afroasiatic language formerly spoken by the Asa people of Tanzania. The language is extinct; ethnic Assa in northern Tanzania remember only a few words they overheard their elders use, and none ever used it themselves. Little is known of the language; what is recorded was probably Aasa lexical words used in a register of Maasai, similar to the mixed language Mbugu.
The Pentlatch, Pentl’ach, Puntlatch, Puntlatsh or Puntledge language is a Salishan language that was spoken on Canada's Vancouver Island in a small area between Comox and Nanaimo, British Columbia. The Pentlatch people formerly numbered at least 3,000 with at least 90 settlements in the area. The language became extinct after the death of the last fluent speaker Joe Nim Nim in 1940, but researchers from Qualicum First Nation declared it to be a living language in December 2023.
The Lencan languages are a small linguistic family from Central America, whose speakers before the Spanish conquest spread throughout El Salvador and Honduras. But by the beginning of the 20th century, only two languages of the family survived, Salvadoran Lenca or Potón and Honduran Lenca, which were described and studied academically; Of them, only Salvadoran Lenca still has current speakers, despite the fact that indigenous people belonging to the Lenca ethnic group exceed between 37,000 and 100,000 people.
Spanish is the language that is predominantly understood and spoken as a first or second language by nearly all of the population of Argentina. According to the latest estimations, the population is currently greater than 45 million.
Kwʼadza (Qwadza), or Ngomvia, is an extinct Afroasiatic language formerly spoken in Tanzania in the Mbulu District. The last speaker died sometime between 1976 and 1999.
Nanticoke is an extinct Algonquian language spoken in Delaware and Maryland, United States. The same language was spoken by several neighboring tribes, including the Nanticoke, which constituted the paramount chiefdom; the Choptank, the Assateague, and probably also the Piscataway and the Doeg. The last native speaker died in 1856; in the 21st century, an effort has been made to revive the language.
Birgid is an extinct Nubian language that was spoken in western Sudan, north of the city of Nyala in South Darfur. Canadian linguist Thelwall mentions his last contact with elderly speakers of Birgid in 1972.
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.
The Sámi languages, also rendered in English as Sami and Saami, are a group of Uralic languages spoken by the Indigenous Sámi peoples in Northern Europe. There are, depending on the nature and terms of division, ten or more Sami languages. Several spellings have been used for the Sámi languages, including Sámi, Sami, Saami, Saame, Sámic, Samic and Saamic, as well as the exonyms Lappish and Lappic. The last two, along with the term Lapp, are now often considered pejorative.
Pyu is a language isolate spoken in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. As of 2000, the language had about 100 speakers in Papua New Guinea. It is spoken in Biake No. 2 village of Biake ward, Green River Rural LLG in Sandaun Province. Additionally, there are about 150 speakers in Batom District, Pegunungan Bintang Regency, Highland Papua, Indonesia.
Basa-Gumna is an extinct Kainji language of Nigeria. It was spoken in Chanchaga, Niger state, and Nasarawa, near the Basa homeland. Speakers have shifted to Hausa.
Teun is an Austronesian language originally spoken on Teun Island and Nila Island in Maluku, Indonesia. Speakers were relocated to Seram due to volcanic activity on Teun.
...as well as by the evidence for a spoken Romance variety which developed locally out of Latin and persisted, in rural areas of Tunisia, as late as the last two decades of the 15th century
Became extinct between 1920 and 1940.
Reported in 1999 to still be spoken in the central Massai Steppe.
The last fluent speaker shifted to Hausa [hau] by 1987.
The last speakers probably survived into the 1960s
Last known speakers survived into the late 1980s
Last speakers survived into the 1970s
Coptic is the name of the final stage of the ancient Egyptian language, spoken and written from the fourth century AD until perhaps sometime in the seventeenth century.
Probably became extinct in the latter half of the 20th century.
No known L1 speakers. Last fluent speaker, Kaayo, died in 1999 (2012 M. Tosco).
Until c. 1800 AD.
Following the Roman invasion of Egypt in 30 BC the use of hieroglyphics began to die out with the last known writing in the fifth century AD.
Gafat was a Semitic language spoken in the region of the Blue Nile, in western Ethiopia. At present, the language disappeared completely in favour of Amharic. Its study is based mainly on a translation of the Song of Songs made from Amharic into Gafat in 1769-72 at the request of James Bruce and on the ample documentation collected in 1947 by W. Leslau from four native speakers.
Last known speaker survived into the early 1980s.
The now-dead language Gbin belonged to the South branch of the Mande linguistic family; as recently as one hundred years ago Gbin speakers lived in the city of Bondoukou and its surroundings.
...Ge'ez or Ethiopic. It ceased to be a spoken tongue in the fourteenth century A.D.
Extinct in the 16th century.
Extinct in 1975.
Probably became extinct in the early 20th century.
On 4 November 1995, Kasabe existed; on 5 November, it did not.
J. C. Winter (1981) says it is extinct. There were 3 speakers in 1971 who used it regularly (E. O. J. Westphal).
The last speakers probably died in the 1980s
Even towards the end of the Mamluk period, during the reign of the last sultan al-Ghawri (1501-1516), the Mamluk, called Asanbay min Sudun, copied the religious Hanbali tract of Abu al-Layth in Kypchak language for the royal library.
200 BC - 4th century AD.
The last speaker survived into the 1940s.
Extinct c 1400 AD..
There was 1 speaker in 1976.
Use began to diminish in the 1950s.
The last speaker probably died by the 1960s
C. Ehret was reported to be working with the last speaker (M. L. Bender 1976:280). Confirmed by R. Kiessling (1999).
c. 200 BC.
The earliest dated Palmyrene inscription is from the year 44 BC and the latest discovery has been dated to the year 274 AD.
1st Millennium BC - 600 AD.
100 BC - 600 AD.
status extinct since 1990
The last speaker died in the 1870s (Traill 2002).
The last speaker probably died in the mid 1980s.
No known L1 speakers. The last known proficient speaker died in January 2014 (Norton and Alaki 2015).
5th century AD.
The last speakers survived into the 1910s (Traill 1995).
In 1975 I interviewed Jopi Mabinda, the last ǁXegwi speaker. He was able to reproduce perfectly the linguistic material he had given to Lanham and Hallowes and he was fluent in Zulu. He told me he was the only speaker of the language and that he spoke it to his sister and brother-in-law, who only had a passive knowledge of it. He was murdered at Lothair, in the eastern Transvaal, in 1988
