Discussion Post 8

[Nile Harris]

Global conquest plays a huge factor in the reason why some languages go extinct. When small groups of language speakers are conquered by different empires, the native languages that are spoken tend to get traded in for the language spoken by the conqueror. It can be seen as a form of cultural cleansing. Sometimes the people who continue to practice their native language can be punished in different ways. As the time passes from generation to generation, the lesser and lesser speakers there are until there are no more speakers left. There is also not much being done to preserve these languages. Another language-killer is the school systems. There are some things that can be done to preserve a language. People are making databases online that preserve languages. Parents can make an effort to continue to pass the languages down from generation to generation. This extremely difficult nevertheless. Languages can also be preserved through isolation.