Language Death

By

Essam Tahir Muhammed

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 A.D. 1443 A.H 2022

“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.”

David Crystal
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Introduction

Every loss of a language deprives us of a window into the human mind

and the human spirit; every language that dies deprives us of a unique
repository of human experience and thought. Loss of a language
deprives its speech community of much more, because a large part of a
culture must inevitably vanish with the language. Language death is not a
modern phenomenon , historical records are littered with names and
sometimes attestations of dead languages , but current rates of language
loss are alarmingly high, and are a matter of urgent concern to linguists as
.well as to speakers of endangered languages (Thomason, 2001:222)

The goal of this paper

The goal of this paper is to shed light on why should we worry about
language death? It also aims to answer some important aspects, such as
what is language death? How many languages are endangered and
currently in use? The reasons behind language death and what can save
?languages from dying

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Definitions of language death
It should be noted that the use of the term "language death", is a
metaphorical one. According to one view, "languages neither
live nor die. They are used or ceased to be used" (Pande 1965: 206). It
may look obvious that "a language dies when it no longer has any
speakers" (Campbell 1994: 1960; Romaine 1989: 380 ). However, as
Romaine points out, the matter is not easy. For example, like the death of
a human being, the death of a language passes through a series of phases,
and it is not a straightforward matter to pinpoint the moment (or date or
even year) when a given language dies. It is often stated that a language is
dead even before the last native speaker of the language dies. If there are
only a few elderly speakers of a language left and no longer use that
language to communicate, then the language is effectively dead. A
language that has reached such a reduced stage of use is generally
considered dying. Half of the world's spoken languages are not being
taught to new generations of children. Once a language ceases to be a
native language, that is, if children are not socialized in it as the primary
language, the transmission process ends and the language itself will not
. .survive beyond the current generations(ibid)
Classification of language death

According to Pande (ibid),in examining types of language death, we need

to distinguish between (i) the cause and (ii) the speed of a given language
death. Language death has also been classified in terms of (iii) the
register (or style) involved in a given instance of language death. In the
following we shall consider various types of language death in terms of
.these three criteria

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Classification in terms of cause
In terms of the cause, language death may be classified as follows: (i)
language death due to the death of the population, and (ii) language death
due to language shift (also known as language replacement and language
displacement. It seems that language death of type (ii) is much more
:common than that of type (i). We shall consider each of the two types
For this type of language death at least three terms have been proposed:
(i) language murder, i.e. physical liquidation (genocide) of all speakers of
a language, (ii) biological language death, referring to language death
caused by rapid population collapse, and (iii) glottocide, referring to the
destruction of the language of a group due to causes such as genocide and
repression. In the following, we shall adopt the term "glottocide" to refer
.to the type of language death caused by the death of the population
.
Matisoff (1991: 201) notes that the people of the once-powerful empire of
the Xixia (or Tangut), on the Western fringes of China, in the
Qinghai/Tibet/Sichuan region, were annihilated by Kubilai Khan's
Mongols in the closing years of the thirteenth century. Dixon (1991a:
241) reports an instance of glottocide caused by a volcanic eruption
on the island of Sumbawa, Indonesia, in 1815, which resulted in the death
.of all speakers of the Tamboran language

Language death due to language shift. This occurs when a given language
.dies because its speakers shift to another language

Classification in terms of speed

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In terms of speed, language death may be classified as follows: (i) instant
death also known as sudden death, Linguicide or linguistic genocide
occurs when all or almost all native speakers of that language die from
natural disasters, wars, etc. and (ii) gradual death, or slow death. of
language that usually occurs when people who speak that language
interact with speakers of a more prestigious language. This group of
people first becomes bilingual, then, with the new generations, the level
of competence decreases. And then there are no native speakers . Instant
or sudden death seems uncommon while gradual or slow death seems
common (Dressler and Wodak-Leodolter,1977a: 5; Matisoff, 1991: 201)
.
Classification in terms of register involved in language death
This classification concerns registers or styles, and two types may be
recognized (Campbell ,1994: 1960- 1961; Campbell and Muntzel ,1989:
185; Hill1983: 260): (i) the top-down pattern, and (ii) the bottom-up
.pattern
The top-down pattern seems much more common than the bottom-up
pattern. This is noted by Hill (1983: 260) regarding North American
.languages
An example from Australia is the following: Alf Palmer a person from
northeast Australia knew that Warrungu used to have two styles: ordinary
and avoidance styles. (The latter was used, for instance, between taboo
relations, such as mother-in law and son-in-law.) Although he had an
excellent command of the ordinary style, he admitted that he did not
know the avoidance style. That is, the avoidance style had disappeared,
.but the ordinary style remained
The opposite pattern, i.e. bottom-up referred to as "bottom-to-top death"
by Campbell and Muntzel (1989: 185). It is called Latinate pattern by Hill
(1983: 260). It is "exemplified by the famous case of Latin, where the

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 repertoire of registers suffers attrition from the bottom up, being
abandoned first in the family vernacular and surviving ultimately only in
.the most elevated contexts" (Hill1983:260)

Factors of Language Death ,Shift, and Change

Violence. Wars, invasions and colonization can physically make the.1
speakers of one language disappear or change it for another, with which
the language disappears with them. This is the case of the languages of
Tasmania or some of the American Indian languages, especially in North
America. One can consider in this group the violent uprooting policies
followed by governments of several countries against aborigines and
national minorities, such as the cases of former British colonies such as
Australia or Canada until the 1960s, or Turkey until the 1980s.
.Sometimes we speak of "glotophagy" in these cases

Restrictive language policies. When states or their governments.2

establish rules for the compulsory (and even forced) assimilation of
ethnic-cultural minorities into the majority or official culture of the state,
especially with regard to the official language, severely limiting the use
of their own languages. The distinguished case of this practice is the
language policy of France, adopted since the times of the monarchy and
reinforced after the French Revolution, and which influenced several
countries within the framework of their national construction. In some
.cases it was combined with violent policies of assimilation

Natural disasters and diseases. Natural disasters such as the tsunami.3

recently experienced in Indonesia can physically disappear a population
or leave it in such a state that its speakers have to take refuge in another
culture, adopting their language and customs. In the case of diseases,

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 modern researchers must be very careful in their contacts with remote
villages, since the transmission of a trivial disease can be fatal. This
greatly affects languages spoken by small groups, for example, it is well
known that the Arauá language disappeared in 1877 because of a measles
.epidemic
Economic pressure. In this case, the disappearance occurs because the.4
speakers believe that their children will have a better future if they learn a
certain language. In two generations the original language will be in
danger of disappearing. This is the case of the pressure of English on
many languages, including some national languages such as Danish or
Norwegian, which, in this particular case and at the moment, are not in
danger. In the past some economic activities had a disastrous effect on the
indigenous peoples so the rubber fever (1879-1945) decimated numerous
.Amazonian peoples especially in northern Peru
.5
Cultural prestige. This mechanism is often related to the previous one,
since cultural prestige often comes from material wealth. It is one of the
most important mechanisms for the disappearance of small languages. As
soon as a foreign language gains prestige and the cultural or economic
elite begins to use it, it will be a short time until this learning moves to
the geographical and cultural periphery and children stop learning their
own language in favor of the external one. Several of the languages
displaced by Romanization would have undergone such a process and
.likewise the old Elamite replaced by the Iranian languages

Voluntary change. It is relatively uncommon, but there are.6

documented cases in which a population has voluntarily decided by
assembly to change to another language.6 Sometime between the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the Northern Peruvian ethnic group of

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 the Icahuates decided to migrate south and was integrated along with the
.Muniches being absorbed by them

Mixed marriages. Historically, ethnic and linguistic minorities, who .7

have practiced intermarriage with people from other, more widely used
languages, have children with poor or deficient knowledge of the more
minority language. In Brazil many ethnic groups very decimated in the
twentieth century practiced intermarriage leaving indigenous languages in
favor of Portuguese. And also in localities where different minority ethnic
groups migrated, the most widespread national language or regional
.language often ends up displacing minority languages

Political motives. It is linguistic immersion, carried out by.8

exclusionary nationalist regimes on minorities, and even majorities of a
population, for only political and ideological purposes, using the
language to be imposed as a characteristic or "national" review, compared
. . to the other language to be annulled

?How many languages are currently in use

Nowadays, there are about 3,000 to 10,000 languages that are widely
spoken; however, there are a number of sources that give a figure
between five thousand and seven thousand (Gordon, 2005). Grenoble &
Whaley (1998) give a figure between 5,000 and 6,000; Ruhlen (1991, p.
391) believes that the figure is 5,000; and the Global Language Register
suggests about 10,000 that includes some dialects as separate languages.
In addition, Dixon (1997, cited in Černý2010, p. 52) estimates that there
are approximately 5,000 to 6,000 living languages in the world. However,
the differences between dialect and language are largely dependent on
sociopolitical factors (Crystal, 2000, p.8). Clearly, there is no significant

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 agreement about the number of languages currently in use, but it may
.range between 6,000 and 10,000 languages

?How many languages are endangered

About 50% of the languages in the world have less than 10,000 speakers
and there are 548 languages which can boast of less than 100 people who
can speak it(Gordon, 2005). In addition, some of these languages are at
risk of disappearing, and over the past few centuries the rate of language
death has significantly increased (Wurm 1991, p.1). According to some
dire estimates, there are more than four thousand languages that may
become disappear by the end of the twenty-first century (Krauss 1992,
p.7), and people are likely to use languages such as Spanish, Mandarin
Chinese, Arabic, and English (Grenoble & Whaley, 1998). The
Foundation for Endangered Languages conducted a study which focuses
on the situation and postulated that greater than 50% of the languages
present globally at present are facing the threat of demise and that the
majority of languages will disappear within the span of a few generations
.(Foundation for Endangered Languages 2009)

?Why should we worry about languages dying

Almurashi(2017:67),states the following reasons that would make
:everyone anxious about language loss
Languages express identity: Language plays a leading role in defining.1
people’s identity, and the loss of language may impact people in negative
ways. According to Sir James Henare, who expressed the influence of the
loss of the Maori language, “The language is the life force of our Maori
culture and mana [‘power’]. If the language dies, as some predict, what
do we have left to us? Then, I ask our own people who are we?” (Nettle

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 & Romaine 2000, p. 23). However, language can influence people in
positive ways as well. As an illustration, people can have an emotional
experience and sense of pride and identity when they reacquire their
.ancestors’ mother tongue

Languages provide valuable information to the mankind’s search for.2

facts: Language can reflect a unique interpretation of human existence,
and this may give people another motive to care about languages’ deaths.
Linguists and academics can learn a great deal from them; for example,
endangered and no-longer-spoken languages may provide various levels
.of intellectual profundity, more so than widely spoken languages
Aesthetic reasons: Languages play a vital role in defining people’s.3
cultures; in other words, language ties closely with culture, and when
communities lose their language, they lose a number of aspects of its
culture. As an illustration, there are a considerable number of practices
that depend on language. For instance, losing language is likely to lead to
.the loss of many verbal art forms such as poetry, and traditional songs

:Factors that can prevent the death of language

Language death is considered to be something sad and quite unfortunate.
However, this case is real, and despite the fact that there are a number of
forces that can cause death to indigenous languages, there are also many
forces which can support endangered languages. As an example,
languages are less likely to disappear if their speakers feel that it is
necessary and valuable to save their languages. Furthermore, language
can be preserved by implementing methods such as using the language in
media and technology and gaining official and community support
(Hoffmann 2009, p.18).Also, Google launched the Endangered
Languages Project aimed at helping preserve endangered languages. It

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aims to collect up-to-date information on endangered languages and share
the latest research on them(https://hmong.es/wiki/Language_death)

Anthropologist Akira Yamamoto has identified nine factors that he

believes will help prevent language death:

1. There must be a dominant culture that favors linguistic diversity

2. The endangered community must possess an ethnic identity that
is strong enough to encourage language preservation
3. The creation and promotion of programs that educate students on
the endangered language and culture
4. The creation of school programs that are both bilingual and
bicultural
5. For native speakers to receive teacher training
6. The endangered speech community must be completely involved
7. There must be language materials created that are easy to use
8. The language must have written materials that encompass new
and traditional content
9. The language must be used in new environments and the areas
the language is used (both old and new) must be strengthened.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_death

Crystal's classification of language death

According to Crystal(2000), half of the world’s current languages are in
danger of dying, and the situation is sufficiently grave that an
international and interdisciplinary effort must be mounted to rescue them.
He has written Language Death to alert and alarm us to the peril and to
.suggest ways that our linguistic diversity might be maintained

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 Crystal in his concise book which contains five chapters, he addresses
:five central questions
?What is language death.1
?Why should we care.2
?Why do languages die.3
?Where do we begin.4
?What can be done.5
Crystal introduces a classification system that allows the researcher to
place languages on a language death continuum (p. 21). Languages that
are spoken by a population that is socially and economically
disadvantaged and under pressure to adopt a majority language may begin
to have fewer new child speakers and become potentially endangered.
When there are no new child speakers of a language and the only
remaining speakers who know the language well are young adults, the
language is endangered. If the youngest proficient speakers are over the
age of fifty (it is not clear why this cutoff point was chosen) the language
is classified as seriously endangered. When only a few, mostly quite old,
speakers remain, the language is moribund. And, finally, when there are
no remaining speakers, the language is extinct. Although the taxonomy
sounds quite straightforward, Crystal further explains that any
classificatory system must take into account many variables, such as the
number of speakers relative to the total population: If a language has only
1000 speakers, but the total population of the community is 1500, the
language is probably not endangered, assuming the community itself is
stable. But if there were only 1000 speakers of English in the US, with a
.total population of 275 million, we would certainly have cause to worry
Language Vitality
In 2002/2003, UNESCO assembled an international group of linguists to
develop a framework for determining the vitality of a language in order to

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 assist in policy development, identification of needs, and appropriate
safeguard measures. This group identified six factors to evaluate language
vitality. Taken together, these factors would determine the vitality of a
language and the type of measures required for its maintenance or
.revitalization
The six factors that evaluate language vitality are:
1.Intergenerational Language Transmission – This is what is
happening now on a very low scale. Grandparents teach parents and
grandchildren the language using oral tradition. If a language is used by
all ages, it is considered safe. If there are no speakers, it is extinct. Here is
an illustration of the Degrees of Endangerment:

2.Absolute Number of Speakers – How many people can fluently speak

the language? This number is rapidly declining due to the passing of
elderly members of communities who are the only speakers of the
language. A small population of speakers is more vulnerable to
decimation (e.g. disease, warfare or natural disaster) than a larger one.

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3.Proportion of Speakers within the Population – What proportion of
the total population can speak the language? This is often very low and is
typically measured in Degrees of Endangerment:

4.Shifts in Domains of Language Use – Can the language be found in

everyday places? E.g. at the store, on road signs, used at council meetings
etc. Where is the language regularly practiced? If it is universally used for
interaction, identity, thinking, creativity and entertainment, the language
is safe. If the language is used in very restricted domains by very few
individuals, it is extremely vulnerable to extinction.

5.Response to New Domains and Media – Is the language being used in

a modern way via computer, Internet or television? Where is the language
heard, used and understood? How limiting is that for educational
opportunities? In education, assigning criteria for determining Degree of
Endangerment can be based on two dimensions: up to what
level and how broadly across the curriculum the endangered language is

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used. For example, a language used as the medium of instruction for all
courses and all levels will rank higher than a language taught only one
hour per week.

6.Availability of Materials for Language Education and Literacy –

Where can the language be read? Is it incorporated in educational
materials used at schools and day cares? How easily accessible is this
material? How current is it? There are some communities with strong oral
traditions who do not wish their language to be written. In other
communities, literacy is a source of pride and is directly linked with
social and economic development (www.sayitfirst.ca).

Accordingly, a language will last long and remain strong in a community

:if

;The social status of the target language speakers remains high-

;The number of people using the target language remains large-
-.Institutional support to the target language remains high

?How can a minority language be maintained

.If a language is an important identity marker-

. If a minority group is cohesive-
.If a minority group keeps close contact with the homeland-
If a minority language gets institutional support-
Language revitalization
Language revitalization, also referred to as language revival or reversing
language shift, is an attempt to halt or reverse the decline of a language or
to revive an extinct one. Those involved can include parties such as
linguists, cultural or community groups, or governments. Some argue for
a distinction between language revival (the resurrection of an extinct
language with no existing native speakers) and language

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 revitalization (the rescue of a "dying" language). It has been pointed out
that there has only been one successful instance of a complete language
revival, that of the Hebrew language, creating a new generation of native
speakers without any pre-existing native speakers as a model
) .)wikipedia.org

Conclusion

Language death occurs in unstable bilingual or multilingual speaking

communities as a result of the language shift from a regressive minority
language to a dominant majority language. More than half of the more
than 7,000 languages spoken on Earth may disappear, taking with them a
wealth of knowledge about history, culture, the natural environment, and
the human brain We should always regret when a language is lost,
because languages are the history of nations. Languages are a heritage.
Just as historical monuments are. We should preserve our heritage so that
it can be passed on to our children and thus let them know where they
.have come from

References

Almurashi, W. Abdulrahman. (2017). Why We Should Care About

Language Death. In International Journal of English
Language and Linguistics Research. Vol.5, No 5, pp. 62-73.
Campbell,L.& Muntzel,M.C.(1989).The Structural Consequences of
.Language Death. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

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 Campbell, L.(1994).Language Death. In R.E.Asher(Editor-in-Cheaf),
.Vol.4,1960-1968
Černý, M.( 2010). Language death versus language survival: A global
perspective. Beyond Globalization: Exploring the Limits of
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Crystal, David. (2000). Language death. Cambridge: Cambridge
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Dixon,R.M.W.(1991a).The Endangered Languages of
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.Eugenius M.Uhlenbeck(eds.),229-255
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.Language Death in Brittany.Linguistics 1991:33-44
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.Journal of American Linguistics 49(3):258-276
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Matisoff,James.A.(1991).Endangered Languages of Mainland
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.M.Uhlenbeck(eds.),189- 228
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Romaine,S.(1989).Bilingualism. Basil Blackwell

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 Ruhlen, M. (1991). A guide to the world's languages. 1st ed. Stanford:
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Wurm, S. (1991). Language death and disappearance: causes and
. .circumstances. Diogenes, 39(153), pp.1--18
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Internet References

Gordon, R.( 2005). Statistical Summaries. Ethnologue [online].

:Available at
http://www.ethnologue.com/ethno_docs/distribution.asp?by=size

https://www.sayitfirst.ca/projects/unesco

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_death

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