Language Death!

 

Hello! In this blog post, I am covering an exciting video by Langfocus titled “Language Death: How do languages die?” This video caught my attention because I’m familiar with some native languages disappearing after the few elders who speak the language die, thus halting the spread of said language when it's not preserved in written form or passed down to younger generations. The first example is Latin. Latin is still used today for religious purposes, and in some scary movies, you can hear people speaking Latin when performing an exorcism. Another example in the video is Hebrew, which surprised me. Hebrew, like Latin, is mainly used in religious settings. There is a difference between a dead language and an extinct language. Languages are considered “dead” when there are no more native speakers, but the language can still be used today in some way.

On the other hand, a language can be considered “extinct” when there are no native speakers left and no one alive can speak the language. A language can experience gradual language death when they come into contact with another language of higher “status.” The speakers of the native language will pick up the new language and become bilingual, eventually abandoning their language. An example given in the video is Cornish. The people that spoke Cornish experienced an influx of English speakers in their area, thus resulting in Cornish being used less and less. 

                                             (Picture from Langfocus 2:13-2:19)
 

This video was eye-opening, as it is hard to imagine your native language disappearing due to multiple factors like gradual or sudden language death. Sudden language death can occur because an area consisting of specific language speakers can experience some pandemic, wiping out half the population and rapidly decreasing the number of people who speak that language. We should care more about the possibility of language death because once a language dies, so does its culture. One of the things that makes this planet unique is the people who inhabit it that come from different areas and the culture and languages that make us special. We should all collectively make a group effort to try and keep this planet’s linguistic diversity alive.

 

 

Jorgensen, Paul. “Language Death: How do languages die?” Youtube, uploaded by Langfocus, 9 April 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3qbYFvOHwk. Accessed 28 April 2023.