Language Death: Part One

There are 7,000 languages spoken in the world out of which 2,000 or 41% of languages are endangered. In the next 100 years, 90% of languages will likely be extinct. It has become difficult for smaller languages to survive as the more dominant languages are taking over. The purpose of this paper is to bring notice to dying languages and why is it important to keep endangered languages alive. It has also seen the different factors that affect language death in olden and modern times. It discusses the different methods and the problems that linguists face in the process of language revitalization. The paper concluded on the note that language and culture are interrelated and need not only government but the help of the common people to revive a language that might seem to be lost in the depth of the unknown.

The world is expanding rapidly and so does its barrier as a language. A language for its people is a sense of identity that makes them unique on their own. What if your language doesn’t exist anymore? The thought of language death is surely scary. Language death occurs when its native speakers are no longer alive which leads to the extinction of the language. 7,000 languages in the world, out of which 43% are dying languages by the year 2021 (UNESCO). It is concerning to look at the rapid decline of the existence of such languages. Linguists have worked hard for revival of the extinct languages. Along with UNESCO, which has categorized the severity of language death into four categories. We look closely into the language of death and its process of revival.

WHY DOES LANGUAGE DEATH TAKE PLACE?

“Language death is like no other form of disappearance. When people die, they leave signs of their presence in the world, in the form of their dwelling places, burial mounds, and artifacts - in a word, their archaeology. But spoken language leaves no archaeology. When a language dies, which has never been recorded, it is as if it has never been,” (Crystal David, How Language Works: How Babies Babble, Words Change Meaning, and Languages Live or Die. ). Various cultures have distinctive languages. Some of these languages are modern and dynamic whereas some are rigid and ancient like Sanskrit. Language evolution happens at a slower pace i.e., 1000 years whereas extinction happens at a faster pace. The shift from indigenous languages to languages that are more socially and economically acceptable leaves with only the older generation speaking their native tongues. The high-status language speakers like English, Spanish and French rarely learn a minority language like Bengali, Turkish, and so on. The lack of proper exposure given to the endangered language has led to a lot of younger generations switching to more dominant languages over the minority languages. The negligence has led to a lot of languages going extinct and it becomes a lot difficult if the extinct language is not recorded. This leads to fewer chances of revival.

WHAT MAKES THE LANGUAGE DISAPPEAR?

• One of the main reasons for the decline of any language is how the people are no longer communicating in that language; even in their communities. This lack of communication results in the next generation being deprived of studying, understanding, or even hearing their language. The next generation would probably grow up to be oblivious to their language.

• If the people speaking a certain language are no longer finding their uniqueness or a sense of personal attachment to it then they might decide to not take their language ahead i.e., passing it onto the next generation. It will slowly start to recede until it no longer exists.

• One of the common reasons for language decline is when the last speaker who is fluent in that language passes away. The person takes the language along with it. If in extreme cases, the language is not been passed onto others then the language death surely takes place.

LANGUAGE DEATH: IN TERMS OF OLD VS MODERN.

One of the misconceptions regarding language death is that it is something that is occurring in modern times whereas in reality, it has been done since olden times e.g., In ancient Japan, the Ainu language slowly faded away because of the advent of colonization which required the commoners to speak Japanese to trade for food and other necessities.

In terms of language death in olden times, it mostly revolved around the shifts that take place in a country economically. Such economical shifts adversely affect the language spoken in those regions.

• Due to wars, genocide, or reprisals, a large number of people pass away; taking their culture and language with them. E.g., the Ainu language can be said to be an example of reprisal.

• Infectious diseases that wash out the communities who lack immunity e.g., Tribal communities face this issue on a larger scale.

• Due to wars, a country taking over another country has forced the inhabitants to abandon their language and learn a new language.

Language death in modern times can be followed by four categories given by Campbell and Muntzel (1989).

• SUDDEN LANGUAGE DEATH

This happens when a language abruptly goes extinct because its speakers died. e.g., Tasmanian, a native American Indian in California. Monolingual groups are more adversely affected by it than bilingual groups.

• RADICAL LANGUAGE DEATH

In terms of abruptness, it is the same as sudden language death but it shifts from one language to another one. Speakers no longer speak their language because of political or social reasons e.g., In 1932, the speakers of Caca Opera and Lancia have to stop speaking their language in fear of being identified as Indians.

• GRADUAL LANGUAGE DEATH

This is the most common type of language death. In this case of language death, there is a gradual shift from one language to more into dominant language. e.g., fewer younger generations speak the dying language than the older generations in the community like English replacing Gaelic in Scotland.

• BOTTOM-TO-TOP LANGUAGE DEATH

A dying language is revived partially; using it as a medium of conversation but may survive only through folklores or ritual verses. E.g., the Hebrew language is used in the old manuscripts of rituals.

We live in a world of 8 billion people speaking varied languages. Some are more dominant than others. Somewhere, we become the reason for the deaths of languages that are critically extinct. This is my research on Language Death which is divided into three parts.

See you in the next Article!