I think it’s really interesting albeit unfortunate that every two weeks, a language dies. I also thought it was interesting how 80% of the world speaks the 84 most prominent languages. This puts those in the 20% who don’t speak the major languages at both a disadvantage and endangers them. The ways these languages are being saved is really cool, but also seems pretty simple, which could help speakers of endangered languages reinvigorate them. One of the things that stood out to me about the continuation of the Siletz language was the fact that learners were interested in the new sounds and found its uniqueness fascinating. I think this is a crucial part to learning language - feeling some sort of invigoration when you learn it. I think that’s why Turkish has been much easier to pick up than Spanish ever was. Since Spanish was required and very systematic in its teaching, I never felt any connection; now with Turkish I actually want to learn it and I appreciate it.
I went on a little tangent in the last paragraph, but now I’ll get back on track! It seems like languages died when new languages are introduced and dominate the native one. This applies to expansionists in the American West who crowded American Indians with different dialects and languages together so they just simply withered out. It also happens in countries that were previously imperialized. Of course there are usually some people who still speak it initially, but as time goes on, people don’t feel as inclined to save the language and then it just dies out. Siletz was lucky in that other tribes adopted the language when they lost theirs, but most weren’t so lucky.
I was kind of intrigued by this question so I looked more into how languages can go extinct and I ran across a quote from Dr. K. David Harrison’s website on endangered languages that really spoke (haha) to me:
“Languages are repositories of thousands of years of a people’s science and art, from observations of ecological patterns to creation myths. The disappearance of a language is a loss not only for the community of speakers, but also for our common knowledge of mathematics, biology, geography, philosophy, agriculture, and linguistics.” - Dr. K. David Harrison and Dr. Gregory D. S. Anderson
Languages reflect how people view the world, and I think it’s so important to preserve them, so I really admire Dr.s Harrison and Anderson’s work.
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