Language Death—The Problem

Just as extinction is part of the natural history of life forms, it is also common in the life cycles of languages. Throughout human history, languages have died because of invasions and migrations, and more so as agriculture made these phenomena more common. But today, there is an extinction crisis among languages, just as among life forms: a language dies every two weeks, and 90 percent of the current 6,000 will likely be extinct by 2100. Once a generation stops passing a language to its children, a language is on its way to no longer being spoken. As it dies, a language begins reverting to pidgin form, losing its endings, the richness of its vocabulary, and the nuances that distinguish a full language.

This series has been about a process of growth, mixture, rebirth, and extravagance. But another part of the natural history of language is decline and extinction, just as with flora and fauna.