Endangered language
An
endangered language is a
language with so few surviving speakers that it is in danger of falling out of use. If it loses all of its native speakers, it becomes a
dead language (or
extinct language).
While there is no definite threshold for identifying a language as endangered, three main criteria are used as guidelines:# The number of speakers currently living.# The mean age of native and/or fluent speakers.# The percentage of the youngest generation acquiring fluency with the language in question.
For example,
Ainu is endangered in Japan, with only approximately 300 surviving native speakers, only 15 of which use the language actively, and few youth acquiring fluency in it. A language might also be declared as endangered if it has 100 speakers, but the speakers are all over the age of 90, and no youth are learning the language.
Some languages, such as those in
Indonesia may have tens of thousands of speakers but be endangered because children are no longer learning them, or speakers are in the process of shifting to using the
national language Indonesian (or a local
Malay variety) 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 (most of
Andaman languages, actually spoken).
Causes for language homogenization include global trade, the
internet, print,
television media, governmental and/or educational policy regarding languages, and racial shame, among many others.
Some linguists argue that at least 3,000 of the world's 6,000-7,000 languages are liable to be lost before the year 2100. There are two basic views as to the implications of this.
One view holds that this is problematic and the extinction of languages should be prevented, even at significant cost. A number of reasons are cited, including:
* an enormous number of languages represents a vast, largely unmapped terrain on which linguists, cognitive scientists, and philosophers can chart the full capabilities and limits of the mind;
* languages embody unique local knowledge of cultures and natural systems in the regions in which they are spoken; and
* languages serve as evidence for understanding human history (see
NSF article on endangered languages).
The view at the other end of spectrum is that this is not problematic and in fact should be encouraged. Fewer languages means better and clearer communications among the majority of speakers. The economic cost of maintaining myriad separate languages, and their translator caretakers, is enormous. For instance, a company could save a lot of money designing and marketing a product in one language, and with one set of instructions. The extremist position of this view is that all languages should give way to one single language, thereby creating the greatest economic efficiency possible by utterly avoiding all transaction costs associated with linguistic differences. It is unclear whether such a monolingual culture would be stable enough to actually reap such putative benefits.
Once a language is determined to be endangered, there are two basic steps that need to be taken in order to stabilize or rescue the language. The first is
language documentation and the second is
language revitalization.
Language documentation is the process by which the language is documented in terms of its grammar, its lexicon, and its oral traditions (e.g. stories, songs, religious texts).
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.
Main article: list of endangered languages
*
Curonian (Kursh) language*
Ainu*
Defaka, an
Ijoid language of Nigeria
*
IstroRomanian*
Livonian*
Sami languages*
Lakota language*
Sorbian languages*
Udmurt*
Manchu*
Chukchi*
Wymysojer (Wilamowicean)
*Most of the spoken
Native American languages in the US and Canada are endangered.
**
Catawba - Last fluent speaker died in 1996.
**
Cowlitz,
Eyak,
Eastern Abnaki,
Kalapuya,
Klamath-Modoc,
Lipan Apache,
Serrano,
Tagish, and
Wappo languages each have only one or two speakers left.
For some examples of endangered languages that recently became extinct, see
Extinct language: Recently extinct languages*
Language revival*
The Language Conservancy*
Rosetta Project*
Endangered Language Fund*
SIL International*
Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights*
Extinct language*
Linguicide*
Language policy*
:Category:Last native speakers*
The Dodo's Fate: How languages become extinct*
The Language Conservancy*
Number of languages in the world to be cut by half in a century.
People's Daily Online.
Xinhua news agency.
November 10,
2005.
*
Terralingua*
Bibliography on language endangerment & preservation (MIT working papers)
*
Bibliography of Materials on Endangered Languages (YDLI)
*
Rosetta Project*
SIL's list of endangered languages*
Lists of many endangered Eurasian languages*
Minority languages in a society in turmoil: The case of the northern languages of the Russian Federation*
Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project at SOAS, University of London*
Electronic Metadata for Endangered Language Documentation*
Learning Aids (SSILA)
*
The Endangered Language Fund*
The International Clearing House for Endangered Languages*
UNESCO Red Book of Endangered Languages*
Intertribal Wordpath Society*
Conservation of Endangered Languages: CTLL Seminar*
Native Languages of the Americas: Preserving and promoting American Indian languages*
Foundation for Endangered Languages*
Handout on Endangered Languages*
Endangered Languages, Endangered Knowledge, Endangered Environments*
Roger Blench: Endangered languages*
Deitscherei.org - For the Pennsylvania German Way of Life*
Thirty Endangered Languages in the Philippines (pdf)
*
Endangered languages (NSF special report)
*
Talking about Beliefs: The Alaskan Tlingit language today (loss of culture, loss of language)
*
Cajun Ethnicity and the Intergenerational Transmission of Louisiana French (pdf)
*
On Endangered Languages: Peter Ladefoged (PBS)
*
On Endangered Languages: Rosemary Beam de Azcona (PBS)
:
see also the large bibliography: Language death: Bibliography.* 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.
* Hale, Ken; Krauss, Michael; Watahomigie, Lucille J.; Yamamoto, Akira Y.; Craig, Colette; Jeanne, LaVerne M. et al. (1992). Endangered languages.
Language,
68 (1), 1-42.
* Mithun, Marianne. (1999).
The languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.
* Sebeok, Thomas A. (Ed.). (1973).
Linguistics in North America (parts 1 & 2). Current trends in linguistics (Vol. 10). The Hauge: 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.
