Language death

Hittite script on a clay tablet
The last three speakers of Magati Ke

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,[1] 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.[2]

Language death is a process in which the level of a speech community's linguistic competence in their language variety decreases, eventually resulting in no native or fluent speakers of the variety. Language death can affect any language form, including dialects. Language death should not be confused with language attrition (also called language loss), which describes the loss of proficiency in a first language of an individual.[3]

In the modern period (c. 1500 CE–present; following the rise of colonialism), language death has typically resulted from the process of cultural assimilation leading to language shift and the gradual abandonment of a native language in favour of a foreign lingua franca, largely those of European countries.[4][5][6]

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.[7][8] Ethnologue recorded 7,358 living languages known in 2001,[9] but on 20 May 2015, Ethnologue reported only 7,102 known living languages; and on 23 February 2016, Ethnologue reported only 7,097 known living languages.[10]

  1. ^ Zuckermann, Ghil'ad (6 June 2012), "Stop, revive and survive", Higher Education, The Australian, archived from the original on 6 June 2012, retrieved 10 May 2021
  2. ^ Calvet, Jean-Louis. 1974. Langue et colonialisme: petit traité de glottophagie. Paris.
  3. ^ Crystal, David (2000) Language Death. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 19
  4. ^ Byram, Michael; Hu, Adelheid (26 June 2013). Routledge Encyclopedia of Language Teaching and Learning. Routledge. ISBN 978-1136235535.
  5. ^ Walt, Christa Van der (1 May 2007). Living Through Languages: An African Tribute to René Dirven. AFRICAN SUN MeDIA. ISBN 9781920109707.
  6. ^ Hall, Christopher J.; Smith, Patrick H.; Wicaksono, Rachel (11 May 2015). Mapping Applied Linguistics: A Guide for Students and Practitioners. Routledge. ISBN 978-1136836237.
  7. ^ "Study by language researcher, David Graddol". NBC News. 26 February 2004. Retrieved 22 March 2012.
  8. ^ Bilbo Baggins (16 January 2009). "90% Of World's Languages Extinct In 41 Years". chinaSMACK. Retrieved 29 May 2023.
  9. ^ "Ethnologue". Ethnologue. Archived from the original on 5 October 2001. Retrieved 22 March 2012.
  10. ^ Graddol, D. (27 February 2004). "The Future of Language". Science. 303 (5662): 1329–1331. Bibcode:2004Sci...303.1329G. doi:10.1126/science.1096546. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 14988552. S2CID 35904484.