Language Extinction

Language extinction Op-Ed Article

November 13, 2013

If the world does not take languages that are at risk of going extinct more serious the world will see that their indigenous diversity of minority languages slowly deteriorate causing disorder in indigenous communities everywhere in the world. Some may think that plants or animals are more at risk however people do not take into account that a language is not only a sense of communication but it is also a sense of culture and while being and when all of that is lost there becomes disorder within minorities and majority languages. Issues with language extinction include: society forcing indigenous languages to conform to more dominate languages by discrimination, media, technology, convenience, religion, and economic reasons. Some of the reasons for language extinction are colonialism, assimilation, and modern life, being wiped out by disease that settlers brought or being wiped out by natural disasters. Ways to revive languages that are at risk of going extinct are classes for people to learn the language, language immersion programs, revival of the culture, funding for these programs, and positive motivation. Once the world recognizes this issue they can start to solve the problem by reviving indigenous languages that are at risk of language extinction or endangered and help sustain the worlds diversity.

The issues with language extinction are what are causing language extinction from being revived once this obstacle is over came the revival process is more straightforward and easier to bring back the endangered languages. One of the struggles with language extinction is society. Society has a large impact on people and it shapes the way people think causing them to conform to the more dominant languages. “in most cases the functional range of the minority language diminishes, while that of the dominant language increases.” (Tsunoda 2001) Resulting in the minority language at risk or language extinction....