An endangered language is a language with so few surviving speakers that it is in danger of falling out of use. For example, many Native American languages in the United States became extinct through policies in the 19th and early 20th centuries discouraging and/or outlawing their use (linguicide). A dead language (or extinct language) is one which has no native speakers.

Identifying endangered languages

While there is no definite threshold for identifying a language as endangered, three main criteria are used as guidelines:

1. The number of speakers currently living.
2. The mean age of native and/or fluent speakers.
3. The percentage of the youngest generation acquiring fluency with the language in question.

For example, Ainu is endangered in Japan, with only approximately 300 surviving native speakers, only 15 of which use the language actively, and few youth acquiring fluency in it. A language might also be declared as endangered if it has 100 speakers, but the speakers are all over the age of 90, and no youth are learning the language.

Some languages, such as those in Indonesia may have tens of thousands of speakers but be endangered because children are no longer learning them, or speakers are in the process of shifting to using the national language Indonesian (or a local Malay variety) in place of local languages.

In contrast, a language with only 100 speakers might be considered very much alive if it is the primary language of a community, and is the first (or only) language of all children in that community.

Examples of endangered languages

Main article: list of endangered languages

• Ainu
• Livonian
• Sami languages
• Udmurt
• Manchu
• Chukchi
• Wymysojer (Wilamowicean)
• Most Native American languages in the US and Canada are endangered, if not outright extinct. A few languages are exceptions like Navajo or Cherokee.
  • Catawba - Last fluent speaker died in 1996.
  • Coos, Cowlitz, Eyak, Eastern Abnaki, Kalapuya, Klamath-Modoc, Lipan Apache, Serrano, Tagish, and Wappo languages each have only one or two speakers left.

Examples of recently extinct languages

Main article: list of extinct languages

With last known speaker and date of death:

• Kakadu (Gagadju), Big Bill Neidjie (July 2002)
• Manx, Ned Maddrell (December 1974) (but is being revived as a second language)
• Tasmanian, (late 19th century)
• Ubykh, Tevfik Esenc (October 1992)
• Vegliot Dalmatian, Tuone Udaina (Italian: Antonio Udina) (10 June 1898)

See also

• Rosetta Project
• SIL International
• Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights
• Extinct language
• Linguicide
• Language policy
• Category:Last native speakers
• Classical languages

External links

• Rosetta Project (http://www.rosettaproject.org/live)
• SILS list of endangered languages (http://www.ethnologue.com/nearly_extinct.asp)
• Lists of many endangered Eurasian languages (http://www.helsinki.fi/~tasalmin/endangered.html)
• Electronic Metadata for Endangered Language Documentation (http://emeld.org)