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Language Daeth and Four Types of Languag

Language death refers to a language no longer being used as the native language of a community, even if it is still used in other contexts like academia. There are scales that assess the viability of languages, with some levels indicating extinction or endangerment. An estimated one language dies every two weeks. There are four types of language death: gradual replacement by another language over time; sudden extinction without bilingualism; radical abandonment for self-defense reasons; and bottom-to-top cessation of everyday use while surviving in special contexts like religion.

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225 views

Language Daeth and Four Types of Languag

Language death refers to a language no longer being used as the native language of a community, even if it is still used in other contexts like academia. There are scales that assess the viability of languages, with some levels indicating extinction or endangerment. An estimated one language dies every two weeks. There are four types of language death: gradual replacement by another language over time; sudden extinction without bilingualism; radical abandonment for self-defense reasons; and bottom-to-top cessation of everyday use while surviving in special contexts like religion.

Uploaded by

Zeeshan
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Language Death

In fact, “language death” is a term used in linguistics with a quite specific definition. A
dead language is a language that is no longer the native language of the community even if it is
still used in other contexts. Its uses tend to only exist in specific situations - perhaps academia
or amongst individuals or in special circumstances -  such as the use of Latin in the Vatican city.
Distinctions are commonly drawn between an endangered language (one with few or no
children learning the language) and an extinct language (one in which the last native speaker
has died). The viability of languages themselves is graded on a scale. The Ethnologue (a very
respected source on that sort of thing), uses 13 levels to assess the viability of all of the known
languages. Of those 13 levels, two can describe language death – Extinct and Dormant.
Another four levels describe varying levels of language endangerment. Linguist David Crystal
has estimated that "one language [is] dying out somewhere in the world, on average, every two
weeks". (By Hook or by Crook: A Journey in Search of English, 2008).

Campbell and Muntzel (1989) distinguished four types of language death.

1. Gradual death involves the gradual replacement of one language by another. An


example is the replacement of Gaelic by English in parts of Scotland.
2. Sudden death is rapid extinction of a language, without an intervening period of
bilingualism. The last speaker then is monolingual in the dying language, as with
Tasmanian.
3. Radical death is when a community stops speaking their language out of self-defence.
For example, after the massacre of thousands of Indians in El Salvador in 1932, the
speakers of Cacaopera and Lancia stopped speaking their language as not to be
identified as Indians.
4. Bottom-to-top death is when a language ceases to be used as a medium of conversation
but may survive in special use like religion or folk songs. For example, Tzeltal in Mexico
has only a few older speakers in scattered villages but survives in the register of prayer.

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