Why We Should Care About Language Death (Published)
The fortunes of any language can fall and rise and are linked familiarly to the fortunes of their speakers. Nowadays, there are many languages becoming widely spoken. Though, it is difficult for smaller languages to survive, a significant number of languages that have been successfully revitalized. The purpose of this paper is to explore themes of language death in various respects, with focus on why we should care about languages dying. This paper also answered some questions regarding the definition of language death and the estimated number of languages are endangered and currently in use. Additionally, it highlighted the problems surrounding the loss of languages, and provided some constructive solutions to reclaim and revive dead and endangered languages. This paper also included a number of recommendations for linguists and endangered language speakers or communities.
Keywords: Endangered Language, Language Death, Language revival, Linguists, Reclaim.