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Language death
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==Types== Language death is typically the outcome of [[language shift]] and may manifest itself in one of the following ways: * Gradual language death: the most common way that languages die.<ref>{{Citation |last=Dorian |first=Nancy C. |title=Preface |date=1989-07-06 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/CBO9780511620997A007/type/book_part |work=Investigating Obsolescence |pages=xβxi |editor-last=Dorian |editor-first=Nancy C. |edition=1 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/cbo9780511620997.001 |isbn=978-0-521-32405-2 |access-date=2022-07-22|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Generally happens when the people speaking that language interact with speakers of a language of higher prestige. This group of people first becomes bilingual, then with newer generations the level of proficiency decreases, and finally no native speakers exist. * Bottom-to-top language death: occurs when the language starts to be used for only religious, literary, ceremonial purposes, but not in casual context. (As in [[Latin]] or [[Avestan]].) * Top-to-bottom language death: happens when language shift begins in a high-level environment such as the government, but still continues to be used in casual context. * Radical language death: the disappearance of a language when all speakers of the language cease to speak the language because of threats, pressure, persecution, or colonisation. In the case of radical death, language death is very sudden, therefore the speech community skips over the semi-speaker phase where structural changes begin to happen to languages. The languages just disappear.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last1=Brenzinger |first1=Matthias |last2=Heine |first2=Bernd |last3=Sommer |first3=Gabriele |date=March 1991 |title=Language Death in Africa |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/039219219103915303 |journal=Diogenes |language=en |volume=39 |issue=153 |pages=19β44 |doi=10.1177/039219219103915303 |s2cid=144285294 |issn=0392-1921|url-access=subscription }}</ref> * Linguicide (also known as language genocide, physical language death, and biological language death): occurs when all or almost all native speakers of that language die because of natural disasters, wars etc. Linguicide usually refers to forced language loss through assimilation or destruction of the identity of a certain group of people.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Zwisler |first=Joshua James |date=2021-12-22 |title=Linguistic genocide or linguicide? A discussion of terminology in forced language loss |journal=Apples: Journal of Applied Language Studies |language=en |volume=15 |issue=2 |pages=43β47 |doi=10.47862/apples.103419 |issn=1457-9863|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Wattimena |first=Patricia |date=2019-03-11 |title=How the History of Linguicide Threatens Indigenous Peoples in Asia Today |url=https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/how-history-linguicide-threatens-indigenous-peoples-asia |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=[[Cultural Survival]] |language=en}}</ref> * Language attrition: the loss of proficiency in a language at the individual level * Change in the land of a speech community: This occurs when members of a speech community leave their traditional lands or communities and move to towns with different languages. For example, in a small isolated community in New Guinea, the young men of the community move to towns for better economic opportunities.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Wurm |first=Stephen A. |date=March 1991 |title=Language Death and Disappearance: Causes and Circumstances |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/039219219103915302 |journal=Diogenes |language=en |volume=39 |issue=153 |pages=1β18 |doi=10.1177/039219219103915302 |s2cid=143838613 |issn=0392-1921|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The movement of people puts the native language in danger because more children become bilingual which makes the language harder to pass down to future generations. * Cultural contact and clash: Culture contact and clash affects how the community feels about the native language. Cultural, economic and political contact with communities that speak different languages are factors that may alter a community's attitude towards their own language.<ref name=":2" /> The most common process leading to language death is one in which a community of speakers of one [[language]] becomes [[Multilingualism|bilingual]] with another language, and gradually [[Language shift|shifts]] allegiance to the second language until they cease to use their original, [[heritage language]]. This is a process of [[Cultural assimilation|assimilation]] which may be voluntary or may be forced upon a population. Speakers of some languages, particularly regional or minority languages, may decide to abandon them because of economic or utilitarian reasons, in favor of languages regarded as having greater utility or prestige. Languages with a small, geographically isolated population of speakers can die when their speakers are wiped out by [[genocide]], [[disease]], or [[natural disaster]].
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