LingoLattice

Image Source: Frederick Interpreting

I’m sure that many people think they know what an endangered language is (since it’s literally in the name) but not many people realize the significance of losing a whole language.

Endangered languages are languages that are in danger of disappearing. When they do, they become either a dead language or an extinct language. A dead language is a language with no more native speakers. A good example of a dead language would be Latin, which is still widely taught in schools, but is not being spoken anymore. An extinct language is a language that has zero fluent non-native or native speakers. For example, Tandia is one of the 573 extinct languages in the world. Tandia was an Austronesian language that went extinct due to a language shift to Wandamen.

A language shift is another important topic to understand. A language shift occurs when a community gradually abandons one language in favor of another, which usually takes generations to happen. This could happen for various reasons such as:

Migration: When people move to cities or new countries, they often adopt the dominant local language for better economic and social integration. This happens for practical reasons such as employment opportunities, education, and social integration. Over generations, children of migrants may grow up speaking only the new language, leading to a shift away from their heritage language.

Political Pressure: Governments may promote a dominant language for education, administration, and employment, making it necessary for people to shift. However, political pressure can be used to prevent language shifts. In the 20th century, the Quebec government was able to prevent a language shift through Bill 101. This made French the official language of government, business, and education and required immigrant children to attend French schools instead of English ones.

Media Influence: Exposure to global languages through TV, social media, and the internet can make them more appealing than native or minority languages. As people around the world consume English content, they often adopt English phrases and accents. When I did an exchange program in Germany, I went to a local German school where the students all spoke to each other with English mixed into their speech. I remember hearing things like “swag,” “bro” and “oh my god.”

Intermarriage: When parents speak different languages, they may choose to raise children in the dominant language for convenience. I was fortunate enough that my parents chose to teach me German, Chinese, and English at home instead of just English, but many children are not as lucky.

It’s heartbreaking to lose a whole language to language shifts. The loss of a language impacts our understanding of the world’s history and cultures. When languages die, the traditions and cultures of the people who spoke it die too. And when languages disappear due to oppression rather than choice, it’s an issue of human rights and cultural survival.

Once a language dies, reviving it is extremely difficult. Even if efforts are made to bring it back, there are often no native speakers left to teach future generations. Still, the efforts made are definitely noteworthy enough to mention. A great example of this is the Endangered Languages Project which has videos so that anyone can learn languages that are at risk of disappearing.