According to the NY Times article, Siletz Language, With Few Voices, Finds Modern Way to Survive, languages can go extinct due to government intervention. For example, the United States government had an Indian policy that created artificial conglomerates of tribes that jammed them into a single place even though many of the groups spoke completely different languages and in many instances, had very little in common. Eventually, some languages prevailed over other tribes. Some dances prevailed over other tribes as well. And ultimately, some cultures prevailed over other tribes that led to the extinction of certain languages and overall cultures as a whole.
Linguists can help preserve a language by creating dictionaries of the language. For example, a Georgetown University student made many dictionaries to preserve a language.
According to the article, a ‘dead’ language can be brought back to life. For example, in the 1950s, the tiny tribe, Siletz was declared dead by the United States- a “termination” from the rolls. The Siletz however clawed back, clinging to former reservation lands and cultural anchors in songs and dances and in two decades time near the 1970s, this language became only the second tribe in the nation to go from completely nonexistence to federally recognized status. Currently, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians now have about 4,900 enrolled members and a profitable casino in the nearby resort town of Lincoln City.
To document linguistic diversity, schools now teach the language through the 6th grade at the public school in Siletz and the tribe aims to have a teaching program in a few years to meet Oregon’s high school language requirements, allowing Siletz, in a place it originated, to be taught as a foreign language.
Comments
I remember reading this article when I took the 105 course and I still think that the information is interesting to this day. While it was not even close to extinction as Siletz, I think Korean went through the same phase when Japan occupied Korea. During the occupation, Japan tried to erase Hangul by forcing Koreans to use Japanese. Interestingly, that's why a few of the words in Hangul resemble words in Japanese today.