Definitions of Language Endangerment
Academic definitions[edit | edit source]
An endangered language is a language that is in the risk of going extinct, either because its speakers die out or because they start using other languages instead. This does not mean a disappearance of a language due to language evolution (such as Latin), but rather a more abrupt shift away from a language that has previously been used.[1] A language is typically considered extinct when it no longer has any speakers, or speakers of daughter languages[2]. Languages that are no longer the native language of a community but are still used, such as Latin, are consider to be dead languages[3].
The reasons for language endangerment can roughly be divided in two: user-based and context-based. User based reasons refer to the speakers of a language not identifying with it anymore while contextual reasons refer to a decreasing amount of situations or places where a language is used.[4]
While the simple definition of a an endangered language is easy to make, defining language vitality has been a topic of discussion. The Expanded Graded Intergeneratonal Disruption Scale (EGIDS) scale proposed by Lewis and Simons (2010)[5] is one attempt at this, used by The Ethnologue. The Ethnologue also lists the following factors as relevant when evaluating the vitality of a language[4]:
- The speaker population
- The ethnic population; the number of those who connect their ethnic identity with the language (whether or not they speak the language)
- The stability of and trends in that population size
- Residency and migration patterns of speakers
- An estimate of when the last speaker died (in the case of extinct languages)
- The use of second languages
- The use of the language by others as a second language
- Language attitudes within the community
- The age range of the speakers
- The domains of use of the language
- Official recognition of languages within the nation or region
- Means of transmission (whether children are learning the language at home or being taught the language in schools)
- Non-linguistic factors such as economic opportunity or the lack thereof
It is to be noted that not all of these should necessarily be applied simultaneously, but the list still offers factors that can be associated with trends in language loss.
- ↑ https://www.linguisticsociety.org/content/what-endangered-language
- ↑ Lenore A. Grenoble, Lindsay J. Whaley, Saving Languages: An Introduction to Language Revitalization, Cambridge University Press (2006) p.18
- ↑ Matthews, P.H. (2007). "dead language", The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics, Oxford University Press
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 https://www.ethnologue.com/endangered-languages
- ↑ Reference is missing
