Editing Extinct language (section)

==Language death==
{{main|Language death}}
[[File:Yuchilanguagespeakers.jpg|thumb|right|Sisters Maxine Wildcat Barnett (1925–2021) (left) and Josephine Wildcat Bigler (1921–2016);<ref>{{Cite web|title=One of the Last Remaining Native Yuchi Speakers Passes|url=http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/one-last-remaining-native-yuchi-speakers-passes|access-date=2020-12-13|website=www.culturalsurvival.org|date=June 2016 |language=en}}</ref> two of the last elderly speakers of [[Yuchi language|Yuchi]], visiting their grandmother's grave in a cemetery behind Pickett Chapel in [[Sapulpa]], [[Oklahoma]]. According to the sisters, their grandmother had insisted that Yuchi be their native language.]]{{More citations needed|section|date=June 2023}}
Normally the transition from a spoken to an extinct language occurs when a language undergoes [[language death]] by being directly replaced by a different one. For example, many [[Indigenous languages of the Americas|Native American languages]] were replaced by [[Dutch language|Dutch]], [[English Language|English]], [[French Language|French]], [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], or [[Spanish Language|Spanish]] as a result of [[European colonization of the Americas]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=How Colonialism Causes Language Endangerment |url=https://www.goethe.de/prj/zei/en/art/22902448.html |access-date=2024-10-23 |website=www.goethe.de |language=en}}</ref>

After a language has ceased to be spoken as a first language, it may continue to exist as learned, second language, such as [[Latin]].<ref>{{Citation|last=Matthews|first=P. H.|title=dead language|date=2007-01-01|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199202720.001.0001/acref-9780199202720-e-799|work=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics|publisher=Oxford University Press|language=en|doi=10.1093/acref/9780199202720.001.0001|isbn=978-0-19-920272-0|access-date=2021-11-14|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

In a view that prioritizes written representation over natural language acquisition and evolution, historical languages with living descendants that have undergone significant [[language change]] may be considered "extinct", especially in cases where they did not leave a [[text corpus|corpus]] of literature or liturgy that remained in widespread use (see [[corpus language]]), as is the case with [[Old English]] or [[Old High German]] relative to their contemporary descendants, English and German.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Library : Liturgical Languages |url=https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=2786 |access-date=2024-10-23 |website=www.catholicculture.org}}</ref>  This is accomplished by periodizing English and German as Old; for Latin, an apt clarifying adjective is Classical, which also normally includes designation of high or formal [[Register (sociolinguistics)|register]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sichel |first=Barb |date=2019-11-12 |title=Understanding Extinct Languages: When and Why They Die Off - ILS Translations |url=https://www.ilstranslations.com/blog/understanding-extinct-languages-when-and-why-they-die-off/ |access-date=2024-10-23 |language=en-US}}</ref>
[[File:Inscription Theatre Leptis Magna Libya.JPG|thumb|240px|Bilingual [[African Romance|Latin]]–[[Punic language|Punic]] inscription at the theatre in [[Leptis Magna]] in present-day Libya]]
Minor languages are endangered mostly due to economic and cultural [[globalization]], cultural assimilation, and development. With increasing economic integration on national and regional scales, people find it easier to communicate and conduct business in the dominant [[lingua franca]]s of world commerce: English, [[Standard Mandarin|Mandarin Chinese]], Spanish, and French.<ref name="Language and Linguistics: Endangered Language.">{{cite web |last=Malone |first=Elizabeth |title=Language and Linguistics: Endangered Language |publisher=National Science Foundation |date=July 28, 2008 |access-date=October 23, 2009 |url=https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/linguistics/endangered.jsp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100309151300/http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/linguistics/endangered.jsp |archive-date=March 9, 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In their study of contact-induced language change, American linguists Sarah Grey Thomason and [[Terrence Kaufman]] (1991) stated that in situations of cultural pressure (where populations are forced to speak a dominant language), three linguistic outcomes may occur: first – and most commonly – a subordinate population may shift abruptly to the dominant language, leaving the native language to a sudden linguistic death. Second, the more gradual process of [[language death]] may occur over several generations. The third and most rare outcome is for the pressured group to maintain as much of its native language as possible, while borrowing elements of the dominant language's grammar (replacing all, or portions of, the grammar of the original language).<ref>Thomason, Sarah Grey & Kaufman, Terrence. ''Language Contact, Creolization, and Genetic Linguistics'', University of California Press (1991) p. 100.</ref> A now disappeared language may leave a substantial trace as a [[linguistic substrate|substrate]] in the language that replaces it. There have, however, also been cases where the language of higher [[linguistic prestige|prestige]] did not displace the native language but left a [[Stratum_(linguistics)#Superstratum|superstrate]] influence. The French language for example shows evidence both of a Celtic substrate and a Frankish superstrate.

Institutions such as the education system, as well as (often global) forms of media such as the Internet, television, and print media play a significant role in the process of language loss.<ref name="Language and Linguistics: Endangered Language."/> For example, when people migrate to a new country, their children attend school in the country, and the schools are likely to teach them in the majority language of the country rather than their parents' native language.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Could social media save endangered languages? |url=https://www.humanities.ox.ac.uk/article/how-languages-become-endangeredand-how-social-media-could-save-them-0 |access-date=2024-10-23 |website=www.humanities.ox.ac.uk |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Atifnigar |first=Hamza |date=July–August 2021 |title=Exploring the Causes of Language Death: A Review Paper |url=https://www.ijassjournal.com/2021/V4I4/4146575866.pdf |website=International Journal of Arts and Social Science}}</ref>

Language death can also be the explicit goal of government policy. For example, part of the "kill the Indian, save the man" policy of [[American Indian boarding schools]] and other measures was to prevent Native Americans from transmitting their native language to the next generation and to punish children who spoke the language of their culture of origin.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://time.com/6177069/american-indian-boarding-schools-history/ | title=The History of Native American Boarding Schools is Even More Complicated than a New Report Reveals | date=17 May 2022 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/08/30/us/native-american-boarding-schools.html | title='War Against the Children' | work=The New York Times | date=30 August 2023 | last1=Levitt | first1=Zach | last2=Parshina-Kottas | first2=Yuliya | last3=Romero | first3=Simon | last4=Wallace | first4=Tim }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.pbs.org/native-america/blog/legacy-of-trauma-the-impact-of-american-indian-boarding-schools-across-generations | title=Legacy of Trauma: The Impact of American Indian Boarding Schools… | website=[[PBS]] }}</ref> The French [[vergonha]] policy likewise had the aim of eradicating minority languages.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://trobar.stanford.edu/la-vergonha-and-future-occitan-language.html | title=La Vergonha and the Future of Occitan Language &#124; Performing Trobar }}</ref>