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An extinct language is a language which no longer has any speakers 1.

Extinct languages may be contrasted with dead languages: no longer spoken as a main language.2

Normally the transition from a dead to an extinct language occurs when a language undergoes language death while being directly replaced by a different one. For example, Coptic was replaced by Arabic; many Native American languages were replaced by English, French, Spanish, or Portuguese.

Language extinction may also occur when a language evolves into a new language or family of languages. An example of this was Old English - the parent of Modern English.

By contrast to an extinct language which no longer has any speakers, a dead language may remain in use for scientific, legal, or ecclesiastical functions. Old Church Slavonic, Avestan, Coptic, Old Tibetan and Ge'ez are among the many dead languages used as sacred languages.

Alternatively, a language is said to be extinct if, although it is known to have been spoken by people in the past, modern scholarship cannot reconstruct it to the point that it is possible to write in it or translate into it with confidence (say, a simple dialogue or a short tale written in a modern language); whereas a language is referred to as dead, but not extinct, if it is sufficiently known at present to permit such routine use, even though it has no modern speakers. By these definitions Proto-Indo-European (of which only conjectural reconstructions of lexicon and grammar exist) is an extinct language, and Classical Latin and Old Tupi are dead, but not extinct languages.

A language that has living native speakers is called a modern language. Ethnologue claims there are 6,912 living languages known. [1]

Hebrew is an example of a nearly extinct spoken language (by the first definition above) that became a lingua franca and a liturgical language that has been revived to become a living spoken language. There are other attempts at language revival. For example, young school children use Sanskrit in revived language in Mathoor village (India) [2]. In general, the success of these attempts has been subject to debate, as it is not clear they will ever become the common native language of a community of speakers.

Contents

Recently extinct languages

Main article: List of extinct languages

With last known speaker and/or date of death.

  1. Adai: (late 19th century)
  2. Akkala Sami: Marja Sergina (2003)
  3. entire Alsean family
    1. Alsea: John Albert (1942)
    2. Yaquina: (1884)
  4. Apalachee: (early 18th century)
  5. Atakapa: (early 20th century)
  6. Atsugewi: (1988)
  7. Beothuk: Shanawdithit (a.k.a. "Nancy April") (1829)
  8. entire Catawban family:
    1. Catawba: before 1960
    2. Woccon
  9. Cayuse: (ca. 1930s)
  10. Chemakum: (ca. 1940s)
  11. Chicomuceltec: (late 20th century)
  12. Chimariko: (ca. 1930s)
  13. Chitimacha: Benjamin Paul (1934) & Delphine Ducloux (1940)
  14. entire Chumashan family: Barbareño language was last to become extinct.
    1. Barbareño: Mary Yee (1965)
    2. Ineseño
    3. Island Chumash
    4. Obispeño
    5. Purisimeño
    6. Ventureño
  15. Coahuilteco: (18th century)
  16. Cochimí (a Yuman-Cochimí language): (early 19th century)
  17. entire Comecrudan family
    1. Comecrudo: recorded from children (Andrade, Emiterio, Joaquin, & others) of last speakers in 1886
    2. Garza: last recorded in 1828
    3. Mamulique: last recorded in 1828
  18. entire Coosan family
    1. Hanis: Martha Johnson (1972)
    2. Miluk: Annie Miner Peterson (1939)
  19. all Costanoan languages (which make up a subfamily of the Utian language family): (ca. 1940s)
    1. Karkin
    2. Mutsun
    3. Northern Costanoan:
      1. Ramaytush
      2. Chochenyo
      3. Tamyen
      4. Awaswas
    4. Rumsen: last recorded speaker died 1939 in Monterey, California.
    5. Chalon
  20. Cotoname: last recorded from Santos Cavázos and Emiterio in 1886
  21. Crimean Gothic: language vanished by the 1800’s
  22. Cuman: (early 17th century)
  23. Dalmatian: Tuone Udaina, (June 10, 1898)
  24. Esselen: report of few speakers left in 1833, extinct before end 19th century
  25. Eyak (a Na-Dené language): Marie Smith Jones, January 21, 20083
  26. Gabrielino (an Uto-Aztecan language): elderly speakers last recorded in 1933
  27. Galice-Applegate (an Athabaskan language):
    1. Galice dialect: Hoxie Simmons (1963)
  28. Greenlandic Norse: (by the late 15th century (16th century at the latest))
  29. Modern Gutnish (by the 18th century)
  30. Jassic (17th century)
  31. Juaneño (an Uto-Aztecan language): last recorded in 1934
  32. Kakadu (Gagadju): Big Bill Neidjie (July 2002)
  33. entire Kalapuyan family:
    1. Central Kalapuya:
      1. Ahantchuyuk, Luckimute, Mary's River, and Lower McKenzie River dialects: last speakers were about 6 persons who were all over 60 in 1937
      2. Santiam dialect: (ca. 1950s)
    2. Northern Kalapuya:
      1. Tualatin dialect: Louis Kenoyer (1937)
      2. Yamhill dialect: Louisa Selky (1915)
    3. Yonkalla: last recorded in 1937 from Laura Blackery Albertson who only partly remembered it.
  34. Kamassian: (1989)
  35. Karankawa: (1858)
  36. Kathlamet (a Chinookan language): (ca. 1930s)
  37. Kitanemuk (an Uto-Aztecan language): Marcelino Rivera, Isabella Gonzales, Refugia Duran (last recorded 1937)
  38. Kitsai (a Caddoan language): (ca. 1940)
  39. Kwalhioqua-Clatskanie (an Athabaskan language): children of the last speakers remembered a few words, recorded in 1935 & 1942
    1. Clatskanie dialect: father of Willie Andrew (ca. 1870)
    2. Kwalhioqua dialect: mother of Lizzie Johnson (1910)
  40. Lower Chinook (a Chinookan language): (ca. 1930s)
  41. Mahican: last spoken in Wisconsin (ca. 1930s)
  42. Manx: Ned Maddrell (December 1974) (but is being revived as a second language)
  43. Mattole-Bear River (an Athabaskan language):
    1. Bear River dialect: material from last elderly speaker recorded (ca. 1929)
    2. Mattole dialect: material recorded (ca. 1930)
  44. Mbabaram: Albert Bennett (1972)
  45. Miami-Illinois: (1989)
  46. Mochica: ca. 1950s
  47. Mohegan: Fidelia Fielding (1908)
  48. Molala: Fred Yelkes (1958)
  49. Munichi: Victoria Huancho Icahuate (late 1990s)
  50. Natchez: Watt Sam & Nancy Raven (early 1930s)
  51. Negerhollands: Alice Stevenson (1987)
  52. Nooksack: Sindick Jimmy (1977)
  53. Northern Pomo: (1994)
  54. Nottoway (an Iroquoian language): last recorded before 1836
  55. Pentlatch (a Salishan language): Joe Nimnim (1940)
  56. Pánobo (a Pano-Tacanan language): 1991
  57. Pochutec (Uto-Aztecan last documented 1917 by Franz Boas
  58. Polabian (a Slavic language): (late 18th century)
  59. Salinan: (ca. 1960)
  60. entire Shastan family
    1. Konomihu
    2. New River Shasta
    3. Okwanuchu
    4. Shasta: 3 elderly speakers in 1980, extinct by 1990
  61. Siuslaw: (ca. 1970s)
  62. Slovincian (a Slavic language): (20th century)
  63. Susquehannock: all last speakers murdered in 1763
  64. Takelma: Molly Orton (or Molly Orcutt) & Willie Simmons (both not fully fluent) last recorded in 1934
  65. Tasmanian: (late 19th century)
  66. Tataviam (an Uto-Aztecan language): Juan José Fustero who remembered only a few words of his grandparents' language (recorded 1913)
  67. Teteté (an Tucanoan language)
  68. Tillamook (a Salishan language): (1970)
  69. Tonkawa: 6 elderly people in 1931
  70. Tsetsaut (an Athabaskan language): last fluent speaker was elderly man recorded in 1894
  71. Tunica: Sesostrie Youchigant (ca. mid 20th century)
  72. Ubykh: Tevfik Esenç (October 1992)
  73. all dialects of Upper Chinook (a Chinookan language) are extinct, except for the Wasco-Wishram dialect. The Clackamas dialect became extinct in the 1930s, other dialects have little documentation. (The Wasco-Wishram dialect is still spoken by 6 elders.)
  74. Upper Umpqua: Wolverton Orton, last recorded in 1942
  75. Vegliot Dalmatian: Tuone Udaina (Italian: Antonio Udina) (10 June 1898)
  76. Wappo
  77. Wiyot: Della Prince (1962)
  78. Yana: Ishi (1916)
  79. Yola related to English (mid 19th c.)

See also

External links

References

  1. ^ Lenore A. Grenoble, Lindsay J. Whaley, Saving Languages: An Introduction to Language Revitalization, Cambridge University Press (2006) p.18
  2. ^ Dead language
  3. ^ "When nobody understands", The Economist (October 23, 2008). Retrieved on 25 October 2008. "The electronic age drives some languages out of existence, but can help save others" 

Bibliography

  • Adelaar, Willem F. H.; & Muysken, Pieter C. (2004). The languages of the Andes. Cambridge language surveys. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521362757.
  • Brenzinger, Matthias (ed.) (1992) Language Death: Factual and Theoretical Explorations with Special Reference to East Africa. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-013404-9.
  • Campbell, Lyle; & Mithun, Marianne (Eds.). (1979). The languages of native America: Historical and comparative assessment. Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 0292746245.
  • Dorian, Nancy C. (1978). Fate of morphological complexity in language death: Evidence from East Sutherland Gaelic. Language, 54 (3), 590-609.
  • Dorian, Nancy C. (1981). Language death: The life cycle of a Scottish Gaelic dialect. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0812277856.
  • Dressler, Wolfgand & Wodak-Leodolter, Ruth (eds.) (1977) Language death (International Journal of the Sociology of Language vol. 12). The Hague: Mouton.
  • Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (Ed.). (2005). Ethnologue: Languages of the world (15th ed.). Dallas, TX: SIL International. ISBN 1-55671-159-X. (Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com).
  • Harrison, K. David. (2007) When Languages Die: The Extinction of the World's Languages and the Erosion of Human Knowledge. New York and London: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195181920.
  • Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.
  • Mohan, Peggy; & Zador, Paul. (1986). Discontinuity in a life cycle: The death of Trinidad Bhojpuri. Language, 62 (2), 291-319.
  • Sasse, Hans-Jürgen (1992) 'Theory of language death', in Brenzinger (ed.) Language Death, pp. 7–30.
  • Schilling-Estes, Natalie; & Wolfram, Walt. (1999). Alternative models of dialect death: Dissipation vs. concentration. Language, 75 (3), 486-521.
  • Sebeok, Thomas A. (Ed.). (1973). Linguistics in North America (parts 1 & 2). Current trends in linguistics (Vol. 10). The Hauge: Mouton. (Reprinted as Sebeok 1976).
  • Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove. (2000). Linguistic genocide in education or worldwide diversity and human rights? Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 0-8058-3468-0.
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