![]() Intersecting all of these is concern for ethics and best practices for collaborating with language communities in their language revitalization efforts. The responses to this social and linguistic issue fall into three categories: (1) causes and consequences of language endangerment, (2) language documentation, and (3) language revitalization. In the course of this account it should become clear why many link the word “crisis” with endangered languages. In this article, we report the various facets of language endangerment that scholars and language groups whose languages are at risk grapple with. However, most languages that lose their last speaker are not reported in widely circulated obituaries. Such news items put a human face on the problem of language endangerment they also spread alarm about the crisis of language endangerment. Other examples include Klallam, a Salishan language, whose last speaker, Hazel Sampson, died at the age of 103, on Tuesday, February 4, 2014, which was also widely reported. Eyak of Alaska lost its last speaker when Marie Smith Jones died at the age of 89, on January 21, 2008, as was reported widely in the media. 8, 1992,” when its last speaker, Tevfik Esenç, passed away (Crystal, 2000, p. Ubykh, a West Caucasian language, was reported to have “died at daybreak, Oct. It is not unusual in media reports to see “language obituaries”-where the death of a language is reported with the death of its last speaker. Reports of the world’s languages in crisis are commonplace in the early 21st century. A large number of the world’s languages are endangered, and it is in this sense that humanity faces a crisis. When speakers of a language shift to another language and give up their own, great amounts of knowledge are lost. An endangered language is one at risk of extinction, or more precisely, one predicted to cease to be the means of human communication for a specific cultural or social group. ![]() The endangered languages crisis is believed by many to be one of the most serious issues facing humanity today, posing moral, practical, and scientific issues of enormous proportions. The loss of a language affects not only the world’s linguistic diversity but also an individual’s social identity, and a community’s sense of itself and its history. ![]() To understand the causes and consequence of language endangerment for these individuals and communities requires a multifaceted perspective on the place of each language in the lives of their users. It involves real people and communities struggling with real social, political, and economic issues. The discussion about endangered languages focuses on addressing the needs, causes, and consequences of this loss.Ĭoncern over endangered languages is not just an academic catch phrase. To address the issues concomitant with an endangered language, we must know how to define “endangerment,” how different situations of endangerment can be compared, and how each language fits into the cultural practices of individuals. Many are concerned for this loss, believing it to be one of the most serious issues facing humanity today. Often a language is pushed out of use before scholars and language communities have a chance to document or preserve this linguistic heritage. The reduction of the world’s linguistic diversity has accelerated over the last century and correlates to a loss of knowledge, collective and individual identity, and social value. ![]()
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