Due by 5pm on Sunday, April 7: Discussion Post #9 on the Ning
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?
Replies
Languages go extinct as there is no longer anyone who remembers the language or utilizes the language. For instance, the generations utilizing the language start to lose proficiency in their language as they speak more than one language. Also, there is a case where culture extinction leads to language extinction. If the language was discovered and preserved by a certain group, then the language would extinct as the culture would be destroyed for various reasons, including environmental problems. When language dies, the culture of that country is forgotten as language is one of the major parts of the culture that explains numerous factors about the country. I believe linguists can help preserve a language by continuously informing about its existence and recording about it. Dead language can be brought back to life if the record is found, but I don't think it can be fully back as there would be limitations to fully understanding it and utilizing it again in the country. Currently, linguists are informing people about languages with writing and speaking.
Languages go extinct for various reasons specifically when people stop speaking the language. When a language dies, it represents more than just the loss of a means of communication. It also means the loss of a unique worldview, cultural heritage, and oral traditions. Language is deeply intertwined with identity and culture, so the death of a language can have
Profound social and psychological impacts on its speakers and their communities can play a crucial role in helping to preserve endangered languages. They can document and analyze endangered languages, create written records, develop educational materials, and work with communities to revitalize language use. Linguists can also advocate for language rights and support language revitalization efforts at local, national, and international levels.
While it's challenging to fully revive a dead language, efforts can be made to reconstruct and revive aspects of it through language revitalization programs, language education initiatives, and cultural revival movements. However, bringing a language back to full vitality may be difficult, especially if there are few remaining speakers or limited documentation available Endangered Languages Project, and the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages are actively involved in documenting endangered languages, promoting linguistic diversity, and supporting language revitalization efforts.
Languages go extinct when nobody speaks them any longer. There are severals processes that result in the loss of a language but typically it is a result of domination by a larger language or through nationalist laws and oppression which aim to create an identity around one language. When a language dies there is a sense of identity loss that can affect cultures and disrupt the sense of continuity with the historical past of one's group. Since language is so connected with how we see the world, this can cause further cultural changes.
Linguists can use dictionaries and education to preserve a language. The best example of this would be the revival of modern Hebrew, which was brought back after centuries. It is easy to see how a similar process could be carried out on other extinct languages that we understand, if there is a significant enough desire to do so. Lately the internet has been used to make recording language and learning it far easier and the heightened awareness has led to several resources like online dictionaries and applications which connect speakers of very endangered languages. While many languages do continue to die around the world, we are more prepared then ever to protect at-risk languages.
Any given language can go “extinct” when there are no more speakers that use or produce that language. It is relatively simple when a language dies it literally means there are no people who use that language, what people don't think about is the sadness that comes when a language dies. When a spoken language dies that means we lose more than just a spoken communication system but years of culture and knowledge that was formed through that given language. People typically think of it as a loss to just the field of linguistics but it also is a loss to the study of culture, thinking, and many more areas of study. Linguists can help preserve languages by documenting them and building an array of words and syntax to preserve the way the language functions and communicates. A great example of this is the language of Hebrew, many considered Hebrew as a dead language but it was brought back to life and now many people speak it due to the documentation and religious background. Luckily for linguists, UNESCO has launched the World Atlas of Languages (WAL) which is used to raise awareness for lost languages and also document what information we have about them to shine light on them.
Languages go extinct when there are no active speakers of it at a certain point in time, including native and non-native speakers. When a language dies, a very significant part of a culture dies as a result. Since culture and language are so interconnected, it seems logical that cultural heritage is being lost with it.
There are very few cases where a 'dead' language has been brought back to life, my favorite case being Hebrew. In the particular case of Hebrew, it is interesting to see how it combined elements from ancient Hebrew seen in religious and historical texts, mixed with some bits and pieces from places where Jews were living in like Eastern Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. It changed the overall language from being a holy way of communicating with a higher power, to one that would serve to use in daily life in the current state of Israel.
In terms of efforts to save languages from dying, multiple programs around the world, like "The Endangered Languages Documentation Program," actively archive and record written and oral resources of endangered languages. By doing this, a language will never be completely extinct, as it will still have some type of record related to it, and therefore possible to revive. Also, by preserving these languages in whatever way possible, one also keeps a recording of different cultures, nations, and of history itself, which is obviously a very positive thing.