How do languages go extinct? Respond to the readings, and reflect on what happens when a language dies? How can linguists help preserve a language? Can a ‘dead’ language ever be brought back to life? What efforts are currently underway to document linguistic diversity?
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Languages can go extinct by losing usage, either oral and or written, over time as a the native speakers slowly dwindle and die off. When a whole language dies, a large part of that culture dies and with it, it's growth and existence. A dead language can be brought to life if there are people who know how the language is supposed to sound like when spoken. Latin, for example, cannot be brought to life because no one knows how to speak the words and the written language. Even though it is archived in the way of written alphabet and words, it cannot be deciphered and or understood how to speak it. There are efforts to slow down the extinction by documenting how certain languages are spoken (ones in which the usage is dwindling) and how they are written and there exists a digital archive so that we always have access to them and they never really die off even if no one speaks that language anymore with this resource. There is an effort to save as much languages as possible and to have a digital documentation of how these languages work and that we do not lose the linguistic diversity.
Languages can go extinct when people begin to forget about it or not enough people use it. I believe that linguists can help preserve a language by mentioning it in literature or articles to educate the public about that language. Linguists have previously tried to "revive" languages by bringing attention to languages/cultures that are not so well known. This allows for more people to be interested in that culture so that they can potentially learn that language and the phonetics offered in its language.