When a language goes extinct, it means there are no longer any active native speakers of that language. Many times there are few native speakers remaining, but they often don’t practice the language as much and it becomes lost in their memory. As certain languages become more dominant and popular within a certain region, it often pushes aside other unique languages of smaller subcultures as they have to assimilate to the dominant culture and learn its language. Politics and colonialism has also impacted the death of languages as government policies during the 1850s displaced Native Americans tribes together that spoke many different languages and had very little in common (Johnson 2012). In this instance, the Siletz tribe became the dominant language and culture as they had the largest population of all the other tribes, which resulted in the gradual loss of culture of those tribes (Johnson 2012). So, as a language dies, so does the culture of its speakers. Therefore it is so important to preserve languages as it gives us a greater understanding of the diversity within our world. It is through language that we can understand the way of life and customs of a particular culture; it gives us insight into what makes them unique and distinct from other cultures that we may believe are similar to theirs. With advancements in technology, linguists have been working to preserve languages through electronic archives of audio entries to create online dictionaries for these endangered languages (Johnson 2012). In addition, increasing the number of speakers of the language helps to keep it alive as well. This often starts with native speakers of that language who may have already had to assimilate to the language of the dominant culture. Schools have typically been a key institution impacting the death of languages, so initiatives to teach students within their schools native Siletz as a foreign language can help increase the amount of speakers to preserve the language (Johnson 2012). Once a language dies, it’s nearly impossible to bring it back to life in it’s true cultural form without the input from native speakers, which is much harder if there’s not much interest from them in preserving their culture and customs.
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