Language Death: How do languages die?

Hello everyone, welcome
to the Langfocus Channel

and my name is Paul.

Today's topic is: language death.

Normally on this channel,
when I talk about a language,

it's usually a living language:

a language that's still spoken
by native speakers today

and continues to grow and evolve.

But there are also dead languages
and extinct languages.

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

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

Latin is dead for example,

but it continues to be used
for religious purposes

and for some administrative
purposes in the Vatican.

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

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

Another example is Hebrew,

which was a dead language
before its revival

in the form of modern Hebrew.

Nobody spoke it natively for a long time

but it continued to be used
for religious purposes

and as a written literary language.

In contrast,
languages are considered extinct

when no living person can speak them.

For example, if the last remaining speaker

of a Native American language dies

and nobody has learned it
as a second language,

then that language becomes extinct.

Likewise, ancient languages,
like Sumerian, are extinct.

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

but nobody really uses it today.

Languages become either dead or extinct

as a result of language death.

Types of language death.

Languages don't always
die in the same way.

There are various types of language death.

The most common way
that languages disappear

is through gradual language death.

This normally happens
when speakers of one language

come into contact
with a language of higher prestige:

the language of a dominant,
more powerful group of people.

That community may remain bilingual
for quite a long time.

But with each successive generation,

fewer young people speak
their traditional language

and with lower levels of proficiency,

as they opt to use
the prestige language instead--

until one day, their community's
traditional language is no longer spoken.

An example of this is Cornish,

which ceased to be spoken
by the late 19th century

as a result of
the growing influence of English

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

even amongst its own speakers at the time.

But Cornish is actually not extinct

because there are revitalization efforts

to encourage people to continue
to use that language.

Next: bottom-to-top language death.

In bottom-to-top language death,

a language ceases to be used
as a native spoken language

but continues to be used
in certain contexts:

normally in a formal religious context,
or ceremonial context,

or perhaps for literary purposes.

In gradual language death,

the language normally disappears
first in more formal contexts

as its replaced by the prestige language.

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

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

the language dies out at the bottom,

in other words, in casual contexts,

but it continues to be used
in more formal contexts.

An example of this is Latin,

which is basically no longer used
outside of religious

or ceremonial contexts,
or perhaps literary contexts.

Next: sudden language death.

Sudden language death occurs when all

or almost all the speakers of a language

suddenly die as a result
of a disaster or violence.

An example of this took place
in the 1830s in Tasmania,

when virtually all of the island´s
native inhabitants

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

Next: radical language death.

Similar to sudden language death,

radical language death
normally happens very rapidly

and normally happens
as a result of political repression

or under threat of violence.

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

but suddenly stop using their own language

as a way to avoid persecution.

An example of this occurred in El Salvador

during an uprising in the 1930s,

when many aboriginals abruptly
stopped speaking their native languages

as a way to avoid being identified

as aboriginals and potentially killed.

Two languages that suddenly died out

were Lenca and Cacaopera.

Case studies.

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

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

Old Church Slavonic

Old Church Slavonic
is the first attested Slavic language,

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

It was a standardized variety of Slavic

that was understood by speakers

of the various Slavic dialects
of that time,

which were still
quite similar to each other.

Those Slavic dialects,

which were basically the colloquial form
of the same language,

gradually developed into
the different Slavic languages of today.

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

it's a liturgical language,

so it fits in with the category
of bottom-to-top language death.

The newly developing Slavic languages

replaced the old Slavonic dialects
as the languages of daily life.

But Old Church Slavonic continued
to be used for religious purposes

and for a certain amount of time,
for political purposes.

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

In both the case
of Latin and of Old Slavonic,

the language never stopped being spoken,

it just continued to evolve
into different languages,

leaving the codified
literary language behind

as a separate dead language
that was no longer spoken.

The Mandan language.

In 2016, a man named Edwin Benson,

the last remaining speaker
of the Mandan language, passed away.

Mandan was a Native American language
of the Siouan language family,

which was spoken
in the state of North Dakota.

The population of Mandan speakers
was nearly wiped out

by an outbreak of smallpox

in the 1780s and again in the 1830s.

The cohesion of the remaining population

was limited by government relocation

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

while the influence of English grew.

The fact that most of the population

was wiped out
in tragic outbreaks of smallpox

would place this in the category
of sudden language death,

even though some speakers
of the language continued to live on.

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

of gradual language death, as more
and more members of that community

began to speak the prestige language,
English, until one day,

Mandan was no longer spoken.

Gaulish.

Up until the 6th century CE,

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

When the Romans conquered the area,

they made Latin the official
language of the state,

and being able to speak Latin became a way

to gain status and economic opportunity.

For a number of centuries,

it was common to be bilingual
in Gaulish vernacular

and the prestige language Latin,

until Latin finally
replaced Gaulish entirely.

This is a clear case
of gradual language death,

as a population gradually gave up
their traditional language

in favor of the prestige language.

Ajawa.

Between 1920 and 1940,

the Ajawa language died out in Nigeria

because its entire community
of speakers switched to Hausa

for economic and practical reasons.

The entire community very rapidly
stopped using their traditional language

and it was not passed down
to the next generation.

This is an example
of radical language death,

when a language dies
because all of its speakers

suddenly switch to another language.

In many cases of radical language death,

the community gives up
their language for survival

in the face of violence.

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

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

Why should we care about language death?

Some people think
that language death is a good thing,

that less language diversity
is a good thing.

For example, the leaders of some countries

want one language to be dominant
and to replace all of the others,

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

On the other hand,
a language is part of a culture,

so when a language dies,
part of that culture dies,

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

For example, let's look at the endangered

Kallawaya language, of Bolivia.

Kallawaya is used
by a sect of medicine men,

who learn the language,
not only to understand the ritual practice

and oral tradition of their ancestors,

but also to understand the thousands
upon thousands of plant names

specific to the Kallawaya language
that explain the medicinal uses

of different plants in the local region.

If Kallawaya disappears,

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

Linguistic diversity
has been on a steady decline,

and of the present,
nearly 7,000 languages on Earth,

nearly half are endangered.

And the top 100 most spoken languages

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

Some endangered languages
are finding new life

through revitalization efforts,

which require that the language
first be recorded and documented,

then learned by new speakers,

and also used by an enthusiastic
and motivated community.

And having some political influence
wouldn't hurt either.

The Question of the Day:

In your country, or in your region,

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

How would you feel about
those languages disappearing?

Would something important be lost?

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Very many thanks to them.

By the way, on the last video
about Toki Pona,

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

That's because the creator
of the Toki Pona language

has been a patron since last summer,

but preferred not to appear on the list.

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

Thank you for watching,
and have a nice day!

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