What Languages Are on the Verge of Disappearing?

The world of language is a place of varying vicissitudes. Socio-economic and political history have had an inescapable impact on people and the languages they speak, shaping linguistic destiny. Some languages have risen to such prominence that it’s difficult to imagine a world without them. Other languages, many of them obscure and unknown to the general public, have disappeared completely or are destined to die. Such is the inexorable march of evolution. 

There are many factors that can cause a language to become moribund and eventually disappear as a first language before ceasing to be spoken altogether. In the past, it was common for certain languages to be suppressed for political reasons.

Languages are often linked to political issues. Their use is attached to national, cultural, and ethnic identity. Some countries have suppressed the use of certain languages in order to build a mono-cultural identity. 

While the political landscape of the world has shifted away from this trend, there are places in the world where this ideology holds firm, threatening the existence of minority languages and attempting to force them to the grave. 

In the modern era, the overarching reason for language decline is usually one of pragmatism. Generations of traditional language speakers become bilingual, and then find little use for their mother tongue. They raise their children to focus primarily on languages with more prestige in order to gain social and economic advantages. Eventually, the traditional language is no longer considered useful enough to warrant the effort of preserving it as a spoken language. 

Languages That Have Already Died

The number of languages that have died is enormous. Arriving at an exact number is impossible, since so little is known of languages that were spoken the further delves into ancient history. 

Virtually nothing is known of the languages that were spoken in the tens (or even hundreds) of thousands of years of prehistory. Needless to say, the list of languages that have died out is impossibly long. And it’s likely nothing will ever be known about them. 

Some languages have died, but have been resurrected for certain purposes. Latin was used as an academic and a legal language for centuries after it ceased being spoken as a first language. Similarly, other languages such as Ancient Egyption, Anglo-Saxon, and a host of others are learned simply out of the sake of interest. 

Sadly, the list of moribund languages is a long one. The scale of the movement from a spoken language to a dead one goes through many stages. The first stage of decline is “threatened”, then “shifting” then “moribund” then “nearly extinct,” and finally “dormant”.

The last phase occurs when the language has no more native speakers. It is estimated that around 88 million speakers speak a language that is endangered.

Languages are at risk from dying out around the entire world. Oceania is a particular hotspot where languages are threatened with extinction. Over 10 percent of the world’s roughly 7000 languages are in this region and are endangered. with just a handful of elderly people speaking each language. In the United States, 98 percent of all indigenous languages are endangered. Bringing a language back from the brink of extinction is not impossible, however.

Languages have been revitalized in many parts of the world, from Hawaiian to Māori to native Irish, which has made a major comeback in the past few decades. This is due to schooling and other initiatives that promote the language as one that should be preserved and spoken.

On the sadder end of the scale, some languages are critically endangered, and efforts to revitalize the language seem pointless at best. Hokkaido Ainu, spoken in the north of Japan, has only two native speakers left. Yet at least 30 000 people identify as Ainu. If the language is to be revived, it would take a monumental effort, including changing the perceptions of the language.

Unfortunately, a lot of languages are going to die out in the near future, and saving them as a spoken language is an almost impossible task. These languages, and the cultures that surround them are however, recorded for future generations. Perhaps sometime in the future, someone will put their fingers on a keyboard and start learning Hokkaido Ainu again.

Until then, the language is safely in storage thanks to the efforts of ethnolinguists!