How do languages go extinct? Respond to the reading, reflecting on what happens when a language dies. How can linguists help preserve a language? Can a language ever be brought back to life?
Languages often die by the hands of other languages that have more power, referred in Kirk Johnson’s article as “linguistic sweepstake winners.” These languages like French, English, Mandarin, Spanish, etc often push out smaller languages through education, religion, and federal policy.
Linguists can help to preserve languages by educating local populations of the value of all languages –both to the speakers and nonspeakers. Linguists must communicate the fact that these languages are valid. They have their own ways of understanding and interpreting life that may by drastically different from English language and culture, for example. Nevertheless, those languages matter. Secondly, linguists help by documenting the languages that are going extinct. The objective is to preserve them so that in the case of a language revival, the appropriate materials would be available. With the right materials and atmosphere, I think a language can definitely be brought back to life. However, the possibility becomes scarce where cultural oppression is the maximized and intercultural understanding is minimized.
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