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Hello everyone, welcome to the[br]Langfocus Channel

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and my name is Paul.

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Today's topic is: language death.

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Normally on this channel,[br]when I talk about a language,

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it's usually a living language,

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a language that's still spoken[br]by native speakers today

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and continues to grow and evolve.

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But there are also dead languages[br]and extinct languages.

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Languages are considered dead when[br]they simply have no more native speakers,

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even though they may continue[br]to be used in some way.

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Latin is dead for example,

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but it continues to be used[br]for religious purposes

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and for some administrative[br]purposes in the Vatican.

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Some people can speak it,[br]but not naturally like a native language,

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and it's not passed down[br]as a native language.

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Another example is Hebrew,

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which was a dead language[br]before its revival

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in the form of modern Hebrew.

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Nobody spoke it natively for a long time

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but it continued to be used[br]for religious purposes

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and as a written literary language.

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In contrast,[br]languages are considered extinct

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when no living person can speak them.

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For example, if the last remaining speaker

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of a Native American language dies

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and nobody has learned it[br]as a second language,

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then that language becomes extinct.

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Likewise, ancient languages,[br]like Sumerian, are extinct.

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Some people might be able to read[br]ancient texts in that language,

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but nobody really uses it today.

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Languages become either dead or extinct

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as a result of language death.

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Languages don't always[br]die in the same way.

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There are various types of language death.

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The most common ways[br]that languages disappear

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is through gradual language death.

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This normally happens when[br]speakers of one language

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come into contact with[br]a language of higher prestige,

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the language of a dominant,[br]more powerful group of people.

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That community may remain bilingual[br]for quite a long time.

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But with each successive generation,

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fewer young people speak[br]their traditional language

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and with lower levels of proficiency,

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as they opt to use the[br]prestige language instead...

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until one day their communities[br]traditional language is no longer spoken.

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An example of this is Cornish,

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which ceased to be spoken[br]by the late 19th century

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as a result of the[br]growing influence of English

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and also as a result of the perception[br]of Cornish as a lower class language,

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even amongst its own[br]speakers at the time.

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But Cornish is actually not <i>extinct</i>

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because there are revitalization efforts

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to encourage people to continue[br]to use that language.

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Next: bottom-to-top language death.

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In bottom-to-top language death,

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a language ceases to be used[br]as a native spoken language

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but continues to be used[br]in certain contexts:

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normally in a formal religious context,[br]or ceremonial context,

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or perhaps for literary purposes.

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In gradual language death,

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the language normally disappears first[br]in more formal contexts

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as its replaced by the prestige language.

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But it continues to be spoken in more[br]casual contexts for a longer time.

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In bottom-to-top language death,[br]on the other hand,

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the language dies out <i>at the bottom</i>,

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in other words, in casual contexts,

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but it continues to be used[br]in more formal contexts.

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An example of this is Latin,

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which is basically no longer used[br]outside of religious

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or ceremonial contexts,[br]or perhaps literary contexts.

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Next: sudden language death.

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Sudden language death occurs when all

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or almost all the speakers of a language

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suddenly die as a result[br]of a disaster or violence.

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An example of this took place[br]in the 1830s in Tasmania

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when virtually all of the island´s[br]native inhabitants

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were wiped out by European colonists[br]during the "Black War".

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Next: radical language death.

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Similar to sudden language death,

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radical language death[br]normally happens very rapidly

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and normally happens[br]as a result of political repression

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or under threat of violence.

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The difference is that the language's[br]speakers are not wiped out,

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but suddenly stop using their own language

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as a way to avoid persecution.

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An example of this occurred in El Salvador

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during an uprising in the 1930s

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when many aboriginals abruptly[br]stopped speaking their native languages

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as a way to avoid being identified

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as aboriginals and potentially killed.

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Two languages that suddenly died out

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were Lenca and Cacaopera.

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Let's look at a few languages[br]that have already died

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and see if we can figure out[br]how they ceased to be spoken.

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Old Church Slavonic

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Old Church Slavonic is the[br]first attested Slavic language

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which was spoken and written[br]between the 9th and 11th centuries.

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It was a standardized variety of Slavic

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that was understood by speakers of the[br]various Slavic dialects of that time,

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which were still[br]quite similar to each other.

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Those Slavic dialects,

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which were basically the colloquial form[br]of the same language,

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gradually developed into[br]the different Slavic languages of today.

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Because it's still used in some churches[br]for religious purposes today,

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it's a liturgical language,

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so it fits in with the category[br]of bottom to top language death.

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The newly developing Slavic languages

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replaced the old Slavonic dialects

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as the languages of daily life.

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But old Church Slavonic continued[br]to be used for religious purposes

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and for a certain amount of time,[br]for political purposes.

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It's worth noting that some[br]dead languages never actually died.

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In both the case[br]of Latin and of Old Slavonic.

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The language never stopped being spoken,

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it just continued to evolve[br]into different languages,

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leaving the codified[br]literary language behind

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as a separate dead language[br]that was no longer spoken.

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In 2016, a man named Edwin Benson,

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the last remaining speaker[br]of the Mandan language, passed away.

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Mandan was a Native American language[br]of the Siouan language family,

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which was spoken[br]in the state of North Dakota.

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The population of Mandan speakers[br]was nearly wiped out

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by an outbreak of smallpox

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in the 1780s and again in the 1830s.

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The cohesion of the remaining population

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was limited by government relocation

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and the construction of dams[br]which separated villages from each other,

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while the influence of English grew.

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The fact that the most[br]of the population

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was wiped out[br]in tragic outbreaks of smallpox

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would place this in the category[br]of sudden language death.

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Even though some speakers[br]of the language continued to live on.

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Among the remaining speakers,[br]we can also say that there was an element

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of gradual language death as more[br]and more members of that community

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began to speak the prestige language,[br]English, until one day,

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Mandan was no longer spoke.

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Up until the 6th century CE,

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a Celtic language called Gaulish[br]was spoken in what's now France.

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When the Romans conquered the area,

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they made Latin the official[br]language of the state,

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and being able to speak Latin became a way

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to gain status and economic opportunity.

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For a number of centuries,

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it was common to be bilingual[br]in Gaulish vernacular

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and the prestige language Latin,

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until Latin finally[br]replaced Gaulish entirely.

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This is a clear case[br]of gradual language death,

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as a population gradually gave up[br]their traditional language

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in favor of the prestige language.

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Between 1920 and 1940,

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the Ajawa language died out in Nigeria

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because its entire community[br]of speakers switched to Hausa

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for economic and practical reasons.

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The entire community very rapidly[br]stopped using their traditional language

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and it was not passed down[br]to the next generation.

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This is an example[br]of radical language death,

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when a language dies[br]because all of its speakers

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suddenly switch to another language.

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In many cases of radical language death,

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the community gives up their[br]language for survival

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in the face of violence.

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But in this particular case,[br]they gave up the Ajawa language

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because it was more beneficial[br]for their community to speak Hausa.

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Some people think that[br]language death is a good thing,

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that less language diversity[br]is a good thing.

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For example the leaders of some countries[br]want one language to be dominant

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and to replace all of the others,

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because they think that will[br]promote the unity of their country.

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On the other hand,[br]a language is part of a culture,

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so when a language dies,[br]part of that culture dies,

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and a unique way of seeing[br]the world dies with it.

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For example, let's look at the endangered

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Kallawaya langiage, of Bolivia.

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Kallawaya is used by[br]a sect of medicine men,

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who learned the language,[br]not only to understand the ritual practice

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and oral tradition of their ancestors,

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but also to understand the thousands[br]upon thousands of plant names

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specific to the Kallawaya language[br]that explained the medicinal uses

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of different plants[br]in the local region.

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If Kallawaya disappears,

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then all of that culture and secret[br]knowledge will disappear with it.

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Linguistic diversity has been[br]on a steady decline

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and of the present,[br]nearly 7,000 languages on Earth,

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nearly half are endangered.

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And the top 100 most spoken languages

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are spoken by 85%[br]of the world's population.

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Some endangered languages[br]are finding new life

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through revitalization efforts,

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which require that the language[br]first be recorded and documented,

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then learned by new speakers

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and also used by an enthusiastic[br]and motivated community.

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And having some political influence[br]wouldn't hurt either.

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The Question of the Day:

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In your country, or in your region,

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are there languages that are in danger[br]of dying or becoming extinct?

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How would you feel about[br]those languages disappearing?

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Would something important be lost?

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Be sure to follow Langfocus[br]on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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And once again, thank you to all[br]of my wonderful patreon supporters,

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especially my top tier Patreon supporters,

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whose names are[br]on the screen right now.

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Very many thanks to them.

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By the way, on the last[br]video about Toki Pona,

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some of you asked why Toki Pona[br]was listed on the page of patrons.

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That's because the creator[br]of the Toki Pona language

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has been a Patreon since last summer,

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but preferred not to appear on the list.

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But upon request, I've begun[br]listing the name of the language instead.

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Thank you for watching[br]and have a nice day!