An endangered language is a language that is at risk of falling out of use. If it loses all its native speakers, it becomes a dead language. If eventually no one speaks the language at all, it becomes an "extinct language". The danger of extinction to any given language and the rapid increase in language extinction can be seen largely as a result of globalization and neocolonialism, where the economically powerful languages dominate other languages.^[1] This type of loss of language can be looked at in reference to Charles Darwin's theory of "survival of the fittest"^[2]. The more commonly spoken languages dominate the less commonly spoken languages and therefore, the less commonly spoken languages eventually disappear from populations.^[2].

The total number of languages in the world is not known. Estimates vary depending on many factors. K. David Harrison, author of "When Languages Die", estimates 6,900 or so languages are spoken on the planet and that more than half of these languages are likely to become extinct over the next century.^[2] Harvey also notes that 95% of the world population speak just one or more of 400 languages, while the other 6,509 languages are unevenly distributed among the remaining 5% of the world population^[2]. Michael E. Krauss defines languages as "safe" if children will probably be speaking them in 100 years; "endangered" if children will probably not be speaking them in 100 years (approximately 60-80% of languages fall into this category); and "moribund" if children are not speaking them now.^[3]

Number of languages[link]

The total number of contemporary languages in the world is not known. Estimates vary depending on the extent and means of the research used to to discover them, the definition of a distinct language and the current state of knowledge concerning the identities and vital statistics of the various peoples of the earth. Even the number of languages that are known varies as some of them become extinct or are newly discovered within the lifetimes of the active investigators.

One of the most active research agencies is SIL International, which maintains a database, Ethnologue, kept up to date by the contributions of linguists globally. Its 2005 count of the number of languages in its database, excluding duplicates in different countries, is 6,912, of which 32.8% (2,269) are in Asia, and 30.3% (2,092) are in Africa.^[4] This contemporary tally must be regarded as a variable number within a range. According to the Global Language Monitor, as of 2012, almost 2 billion people around the globe speak English as either their first or second language, making it the most widely spoken language in history.^[2] Mandarin or Chinese is in second place with roughly 1 billion speakers, while Spanish is in third place with about 500 million speakers. Hindi is in fourth, followed by dialects of spoken Arabic with 450-490 million speakers worldwide.^[2]

Areas with a particularly large number of languages that are nearing extinction include: Eastern Siberia, Central Siberia, Northern Australia, Central America, and Northwest Pacific Plateau. Other hotspots are Oklahoma Southwest and Southern South America.

Identification[link]

While there is no definite threshold for identifying a language as endangered, three main criteria are used as guidelines:

1. The number of speakers currently living.
2. The mean age of native and/or fluent speakers.
3. The percentage of the youngest generation acquiring fluency with the language in question.

Some languages, such as those in Indonesia, may have tens of thousands of speakers but may be endangered because children are no longer learning them, and speakers are in the process of shifting to using the national language Indonesian in place of local languages.

In contrast, a language with only 100 speakers might be considered very much alive if it is the primary language of a community, and is the first (or only) language of all children in that community, actually spoken.

Asserting that "Language diversity is essential to the human heritage," UNESCO's Ad Hoc Expert Group on Endangered Languages offers this definition of an endangered language: "... when its speakers cease to use it, use it in an increasingly reduced number of communicative domains, and cease to pass it on from one generation to the next. That is, there are no new speakers, adults or children."^[5]

UNESCO's Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger categorises 2,500 languages in five levels of endangerment: unsafe, definitely endangered, severely endangered, critically endangered and extinct.^[6] More than 200 languages have become extinct around the world over the last three generations.^[7]

UNESCO distinguishes four levels of endangerment in languages, based on intergenerational transfer:^[8]

Vulnerable: Most children speak the language, but it may be restricted to certain domains (e.g., home).

Definitely endangered: Children no longer learn the language as mother tongue in the home.

Severely endangered: Language is spoken by grandparents and older generations; while the parent generation may understand it, they do not speak it to children or among themselves.

Critically endangered: The youngest speakers are grandparents and older, and they speak the language partially and infrequently.

Trends[link]

There are many suggestions to how and why languages of the world are becoming endangered and extinct. However, some factors that endanger languages are technology, culture, globalization and popular culture - all aspects of the modern world. As nations all across the world strive to communicate with one another in the hope of boosting their economy and national interests, they are forced to implement "official languages" like English, Spanish, French and so on to promote the high prestige of speaking an imperial language like the common languages listed above. Another factor endangering languages today are the views of parents. Parents today encourage their children to learn common large languages instead of their ancestral languages due to the globalization of the world. Nowadays children are more likely to succeed if they are able to speak the popular languages of the world which enable them to get better jobs and have better futures.

All these trends and factors endangering languages around the world can lead to many detrimental problems to cultures and people. Language itself defines a culture through the people who speak it and what it allows speakers to say. Words that describe a particular cultural practice or idea may not translate precisely into another language. Many endangered languages have rich oral cultures with stories, songs, and histories passed on to younger generations but no written forms. With the extinction of a language, an entire culture is lost.

Revival[link]

Linguists, members of endangered language communities, governments, nongovernmental organizations, and international organizations such as UNESCO and the European Union are actively working to save and stabilize endangered languages.^[1] Once a language is determined to be endangered, there are three steps one can take in order to stabilize or rescue the language. The first is language documentation, the second is language revitalization and the third is language maintenance.^[1]

Language documentation is the process by which the language is documented in terms of its grammar, lexicon, and oral traditions (e.g. stories, songs, religious texts). One may create dictionaries or orthographies. Language documentation also entails the promotion of positive attitudes toward endangered languages both outside and inside the community. This can be done for example by introducing and enforcing linguistic practices.^[1]

Language revitalization is the process by which a language community through political, community, and educational means attempts to increase the number of active speakers of the endangered language.^[1] This process is also sometimes referred to as language revival or reversing language shift.^[1]

Language maintenance refers to the support given to languages that are still vital to the world but need to be protected from outsiders who can ultimately affect the number of speakers of a language.^[1] These outsiders could be promoters of globalization who offer jobs that require the knowledge of the more well known national language for jobs such as telemarketing.

Another option is "post-vernacular maintenance": the teaching of some words and concepts of the lost language, rather than revival proper.^[9]

See also[link]

Languages portal

• Endangered Language Fund
• Extinct language
• GOLD (ontology)
• The Image Expedition
• Language death
• Language observatory
• Language policy
• Language revitalization
• List of extinct languages
• List of notable revived languages
• Lists of endangered languages
• Native American Languages Act of 1990
• Red Book of Endangered Languages
• Rosetta Project
• The Language Conservancy
• The Linguists (documentary film)
• Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Abley, Mark (2003). Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages. London: Heinemann. 
• Campbell, Lyle; Mithun, Marianne (Eds.) (1979). The Languages of Native America: Historical and Comparative Assessment. Austin: University of Texas Press. 
• Crystal, David. (2000). Language Death. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Evans, Nicholas (2001). "The Last Speaker is Dead - Long Live the Last Speaker!". In Newman, Paul; Ratliff, Martha. Linguistic Field Work. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 250–281. .
• Hale, Kenneth; Krauss, Michael; Watahomigie, Lucille J.; Yamamoto, Akira Y.; Craig, Colette; Jeanne, LaVerne M. et al. (1992). Endangered Languages. Language, 68 (1), 1-42.
• 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.
• McConvell, Patrick and Nicholas Thieberger. (2006). Keeping Track of Language Endangerment in Australia. Denis Cunningham, David Ingram and Kenneth Sumbuk (eds). Language Diversity in the Pacific: Endangerment and Survival. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters. 54-84.
• McConvell, Patrick and Nicholas Thieberger. (2001). State of Indigenous Languages in Australia - 2001 (PDF), Australia State of the Environment Second Technical Paper Series (Natural and Cultural Heritage), Department of the Environment and Heritage, Canberra.
• Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.
• Nettle, Daniel and Suzanne Romaine. (2000). Vanishing Voices: The Extinction of the World's Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Sebeok, Thomas A. (Ed.). (1973). Linguistics in North America (parts 1 & 2). Current Trends in Linguistics (Vol. 10). The Hague: Mouton. (Reprinted as Sebeok 1976).
• Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove. (2000). Linguistic Genocide in Education or Worldwide Diversity and Human Rights? Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 0-8058-3468-0.

External links[link]

• "Onkwehonwe.com Learning Labs". http://www.Onkwehonwe.com/education. 
• Akasaka, Rio; Machael Shin; Aaron Stein (2008). "Endangered Languages: Information and Resources on Dying Languages". Endangered-Languages.com. http://www.endangered-languages.com. Retrieved 12 April 2009. 
• "Bibliography of Materials on Endangered Languages". Yinka Déné Language Institute (YDLI). 2006. http://www.ydli.org/biblios/endlabib.htm. Retrieved 12 April 2009. 
• Constantine, Peter (2010). "Is There Hope for Europe’s Endangered Native Tongues?". The Quarterly Conversation. http://quarterlyconversation.com/constant/peter-constantine-on-arvanitika-is-there-hope-for-europe%E2%80%99s-endangered-native-tongues. 
• "Endangered languages". SIL International. 2009. http://www.sil.org/sociolx/ndg-lg-home.html. Retrieved 12 April 2009. 
• Headland, Thomas N. (2003). "Thirty Endangered Languages in the Philippines" (pdf). Dallas, Texas: Summer Institute of Linguistics. http://www.und.nodak.edu/dept/linguistics/wp/2003Headland.PDF. 
• Horne, Adele; Peter Ladefoged; Rosemary Beam de Azcona (2006). "Interviews on Endangered Languages". Arlington, Virginia: Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2006/tailenders/special_languages.html. Retrieved 26 April 2009. 
• "Let us save Tanii". Savetanii. 2009. http://savetanii.blogspot.com. Retrieved 26 April 2009. 
• Malone, Elizabeth; Nicole Rager Fuller (2008). "A Special Report: Endangered Languages". National Science Foundation. http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/linguistics/endangered.jsp. Retrieved 26 April 2009. 
• Richards, Norvin; Jessica Coon; Seth Cable (2011). "Three Talks on Endangered Languages (50 Years of Linguistics at MIT)". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9tmbmdp4lk. 
• "Nearly Extinct Languages". Electronic Metadata for Endangered Languages Data (E-MELD). 2001-2008. http://emeld.org/features/get-nearly-extinct.cfm. 
• "Ogmios (index)". Foundation for Endangered Languages. 1995-2008. http://www.ogmios.org/letter.htm. 
• Salminen, Tapani (1998). "Minority Languages in a Society in Turmoil: The Case of the Northern Languages of the Russian Federation". In Ostler, Nicholas. Endangered languages: What Role for the Specialist? Proceedings of the Second FEL Conference (new ed.). Edinburgh: Foundation for Endangered Languages & Helsinki University. pp. 58–63. http://www.helsinki.fi/~tasalmin/rf.html. 
• "Selected Descriptive, Theoretical and Typological Papers (index)". Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages. 1997-2007. http://www.livingtongues.org/papers.html. Retrieved 25 April 2009. 
• Shetter, William Z. (1998). "The Dodo's Fate: How Languages Become Extinct". Language Miniatures. William Z. Shetter. http://mypage.iu.edu/~shetter/miniatures/extinct.htm. Retrieved 12 April 2009. 
• "Society to Advance Indigenous Vernaculars of the United States". SAIVUS. 2008-2010. http://www.saivus.org. Retrieved 3 March 2010. 
• "UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger". UNESCO. 1995-2008. http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?pg=00139. Retrieved 25 April 2009. 

Nicholas Ostler (born 20 May 1952) is a British scholar and author. Ostler studied at Balliol College, Oxford, where he received degrees in Greek, Latin, philosophy, and economics. He later studied under Noam Chomsky at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned his Ph.D. in linguistics and Sanskrit.

His 2005 book Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World documents the spread of language throughout recorded human history.

His 2007 book Ad Infinitum: A Biography of Latin looks specifically at the language of the Romans, both before and after the existence of their Empire. The story focuses on the rise, spread, and dominance of Latin, both among other languages of the Italian peninsula in the early part of the 1st millennium BC and among the languages of Western Europe in the Dark Ages and beyond, presenting the life of Latin as any biographer would present the life of his subject. With this book, Ostler provides a strong argument against the label 'dead language' so often assigned to Latin. However, the title, 'Ad Infinitum,' refers not to this, but to his thesis that the Latin-speaking world was unconscious of its own limits, looking always back to its centre, rather than outwards.

He is currently the chairman of the Foundation for Endangered Languages, and lives in Bath, England.

Works[link]

• Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World. HarperCollins: London and New York, 2005.

• Ad Infinitum: A Biography of Latin. HarperCollins in the UK, and Walker & Co. in the USA: London and New York, 2007.

• The Last Lingua Franca: English until the Return to Babel. Penguin in the UK, and Bloomsbury/Walker Books in the USA. London and New York, 2010. (ISBN 0802717713)

References[link]

• Author: Nicholas Ostler, Harper Collins. Retrieved January 21, 2007.
• Ostler, Nicholas. Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World. New York: Harper Perennial, 2005. ISBN 0-06-093572-3
• Author: Nicholas Ostler, AP Watt (literary agent). Retrieved July 26, 2010.

External links[link]

• Ostler official site

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An indigenous language or autochthonous language is a language that is native to a region and spoken by indigenous peoples but has been reduced to the status of a minority language. This language would be from a linguistically distinct community that has been settled in the area for many generations. Indigenous languages may not be national languages, or may have fallen out of use, because of language deaths or linguicide caused by colonization, where the original language is replaced by that of the colonists.

Disappearance[link]

Part of a series on
Indigenous rights
Rights
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Governmental organizations
AADNC · ACHPR · Arctic Council Bureau of Indian Affairs · CDI Council of Indigenous Peoples FUNAI · NCIP · UNPFII
NGOs and political groups
AFN · Amazon Watch · CAP · COICA CONAIE · Cultural Survival · EZLN · fPcN IPACC · IPCB · IWGIA · NARF · ONIC Survival International · UNPO · (more ...)
Issues
Colonialism · Civilizing mission Cultural genocide · Manifest Destiny Postdevelopment theory · Bantustan Indian reservation · Indian reserve
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ILO 169 · United Nations Declaration
Category
v t e

Languages are disappearing because there are no longer any people left who speak those languages.^[1]

Since 1600 in North America alone, 52 Native American languages have disappeared. Globally, there may be more than 7000 languages that exist in the world today, though many of them have not been recorded because they belong to tribes in rural areas of the world or are not easily accessible. It is estimated that 6,809 "living" languages exist in the world today, but 90 per cent of them are spoken by fewer than 100,000 people. Some languages are even closer to disappearing.

"Forty six languages are known to have just one native speaker while 357 languages have fewer than 50 speakers. Rare languages are more likely to show evidence of decline than more common ones."^[2]

Of those languages, this means that roughly 6,100 languages are facing a risk of extinction.

The State of Oklahoma provides the backdrop for an example of language loss in the developed world. It boasts the highest density of indigenous languages in the United States. This includes languages originally spoken in the region, as well as those of Indian tribes from other areas that were forcibly relocated onto reservations there.^[3] The U.S. government drove the Yuchi from Tennessee to Oklahoma in the early 19th century. Until the early 20th century, most Yuchi tribe members spoke the language fluently. Then, government boarding schools severely punished American Indian students who were overheard speaking their own language. To avoid beatings and other punishments, Yuchi, and other Indian children abandoned their native languages in favor of English.

“In 2005, only five elderly members of the Yuchi tribe were fluent in the language. These remaining speakers spoke Yuchi fluently before they went to school and have maintained the language despite strong pressure to abandon it.”^[4]

This was not a problem limited to Oklahoma either. In the Northwest Pacific Plateau, there are no speakers left of the indigenous tribal languages from that area, all the way to British Columbia.

“Oregon's Siletz reservation, established in 1855, was home to the endangered language Siletz Dee-ni. The reservation held members of 27 different Indian bands speaking many languages. In order to communicate, people adopted Chinook Jargon, a pidgin or hybrid language. Between the use of Chinook Jargon and the increased presence of English, the number of speakers of indigenous languages dwindled.” ^[5]

Other tribes of Native Americans were also forced into Government schools and reservations. They were also treated badly if they did not become “civilized”. This meant they were to go to Christian churches and speak English. They were forced to give up their tribal religious beliefs and languages. Now, these Native Americans are trying to regain some of their lost heritage. They gather at “Pow-wow” to share culture, stories, remedies, dances, music, rhythms, recipes and heritage with anyone who wants to learn them.

"In January 2008, in Anchorage, Alaska, friends and relatives gathered to bid their last farewell to 89 year old Marie Smith Jones, a beloved matriarch of her community. “As they bid her farewell to her, they also bid farewell to the Eyak language as Marie was the last fluent speaker of the language. "^[6]

See also[link]

• Minority language
• Linguistic imperialism

References[link]

External links[link]

• Chakana: NGO & knowledge centre about Indians of the highlands (including language studies)
• Dutch Centre for Indigenous Peoples
• Alaska Native Language Center (ANLC)
• Indigenous Language Institute
• Aboriginal Languages of Australia
• The Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas (SSILA)
• Electronic Metastructure for Endangered Languages Data (EMELD)
• Canadian Indigenous Languages and Literacy Development Institute (CILLDI)

References[link]

• Frawley, William, and Kenneth C. Hill. (2002) Making dictionaries : preserving indigenous languages of the Americas. Berkeley : University of California 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.
• Singerman, Robert. (1996) Indigenous languages of the Americas: A bibliography of dissertations and theses. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press
• Wurm, S. A. and Ian Heyward, (Eds.) 2001. Atlas of the world's languages in danger of disappearing. Paris: UNESCO Pub.