Language and Communication

Atiksh Rathi CLSP 7C

Question: What is language death? Why are languages dying? what can we do to save them?

What is language death?

A language dies when nobody speaks it anymore.
A language’s destiny depends on the number of people using it. As few languages are widely spoken, less used
languages find it difficult to survive.
There are over 7,117 languages in the World and it is estimated that one language dies out every 14 days and
the reality is unequivocal(undeniable). Half of the world’s 7,117 languages are expected to be extinct by the end
of this century.
On 4 November 1995, Kasabe existed; on 5 November, it did not. If you are the last speaker of a language, your
language – viewed as a tool of communication – is already dead.
Why are languages dying?
There are different reasons languages die. Language death can be identified by three main reasons: population
loss, forced shift, and voluntary shift.
Population Loss:
The rapid way a language can die is when the people who speak that language are no more. Population loss
happens when the people who speak that language die, because of a major pandemic, wars, or natural
disaster.
Forced Shift:
The second way is known as forced transition transpires when a society of people are required to learn a
language. They do this by making learning the dialect a must, taking their land, and enslaving them.
In certain communities speaking another language apart from the schools main language was shamed upon,
and punished.In Kenya Gikuyu speaking children if caught speaking Gikuyu were fined, caned or forced to carry
a sign saying ”I am stupid.” Such measures resulted in student hating their mother tongue and it felt less
important to them. They were embarrassed to use it and did not pass it on to their next generation.
Voluntary Shift:
This is the most common way a language dies. In this way, a person/community of people believe that opting for
another language apart from their mother tongue will be better prospects and opportunities when speaking the
another language. After learning the other language they slowly stop using their mother tongue, and soon it dies
out. Most of the time language shift occurs over decades and sometimes even over a time of hundreds of years.
Another reason that language death happens is migration and better economical influence because of the
various financial opportunities.
Cultural influence can also cause language death as the more dominant, powerful culture will be high, more
civilised and the other cultures will under their influence will slowly start using their lingo and stop using their
tongue.
What can we do to save them?
There are many things one can do to save languages. Parents should speak in their mother tongue at home as
the children can unconsciously understand that language and learn it.
Another way to keep languages alive is to teach a language free of cost willing to learn it. India has many
institutions providing free Sanskrit classes.
Create archives, voice recording and written material about your language so that if it dies it can be revived
through these mediums.Creating cartoons, kids shows, storytelling’s, using radio/podcasts in an endangered
language might spark an interest wanting the kids to learn that language.
Govt and local school communities can make their cultural languages a must. For example, across the UAE
schools, learning Arabic is mandatory for children. Another example is the way Singapore offering cultural
languages as second language option.
Local communities can arrange various games or competitions in local languages which might want people to
participate and win.
Conclusion
“The wisdom of humanity is coded in language," says Lyle Campbell, director of the university's Center for
American Indian Languages. "Once a language dies, the knowledge dies with it."

Reflection
Losing a language is very sad as every language contains its own culture , myths, spiritual beliefs and
stories.With every language that dies so does its exotic, one of a kind culture. With every language lost we
become poorer as knowledge contained in the language is lost. We all need to join hands and work towards
saving these precious gems history has gifted us.
Bibliography
Books :
Language death by David Crystal
Language death by Viktor Hohn
Websites :
Medium.com
Cambridge.org
Thestar.com
Kwintessential.co.uk
Thoughtco.com
Omniglot.com

Pictures