Languages have always come and gone throughout human history, but in recent centuries the pace of language extinction has accelerated at an alarming rate. Experts estimate that over 3,000 languages currently face extinction and that between 50% and 90% of the world’s languages will no longer exist by the end of this century.
There are many complex reasons why languages go extinct, but three of the main causes are:
Globalization and the Spread of Major Languages
In today’s increasingly interconnected world, a handful of major languages like English, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, and Arabic have become international languages used for business, technology, travel, education, media, and government. The dominance of these major languages has marginalized indigenous and minority languages.
As major languages spread, many communities stop passing their native languages on to younger generations. Parents may encourage their children to learn a more dominant language like English or Mandarin instead of their traditional tongue, believing it will increase their educational and economic opportunities.
This accelerates language shift, where a community starts using a new dominant language over their original language. As older generations of native speakers pass away, no new generations of speakers adopt the language and it declines toward extinction.
English as a Global Language
English is arguably the world’s most dominant language today. Originating in England, through the power of the British Empire it spread around the globe over the last few centuries. Now English is used by over 1.5 billion people and is the primary language of global business, commerce, popular culture, science, aviation, and the internet.
The global dominance of English has led many minority language communities to abandon their heritage tongues in favor of English for social mobility and access to the modern world. This English-driven language extinction primarily impacts indigenous languages like Native American and Australian Aboriginal tongues.
Mandarin Chinese Spreading in Asia
Similarly, Mandarin Chinese has become the dominant language across mainland China and parts of Asia due to the economic and cultural influence of China. The government actively encourages citizens to use Mandarin, leading to the decline of languages like Mongolian, Tibetan, Uyghur, and Zhuang. Taiwan has also seen a major shift toward Mandarin Chinese in recent decades, threatening indigenous Formosan languages.
Urbanization and Migration
Urbanization and migration patterns have significantly impacted language diversity and vitality in recent decades. As rural communities migrate to urban areas in search of work, large linguistically diverse groups come together. Dominant languages exert influence and minority languages get pushed to the margins.
Urban environments are often seen as more progressive and modern, associating minority languages with backwardness. New arrivals frequently abandon their mother tongues in order to assimilate and get ahead.
Some examples of urbanization impacting languages:
- Indigenous Mexicans migrating to Mexico City often stop using languages like Nahuatl and adopt Spanish.
- Rural Nepalis relocating to Kathmandu shift from using their village languages to the national language Nepali.
- Young people in Malaysia migrating from countryside to Kuala Lumpur frequently switch from minority tongues like Iban and Kadazan to Malay.
This pattern drains rural communities of language speakers. Remaining elder speakers have no one to converse with in their mother tongue, leading to extinction.
Brain Drain and Lost Transmission
Related to urbanization, small communities often lose their most educated and upwardly mobile members to migrations. Without these key language advocates and teachers, transmission of minority tongues to new generations declines.
For example, many Native American tribes in the U.S. lost their traditional medicine men, storytellers, and tribal historians who kept their language and culture alive. This “brain drain” phenomenon accelerates language loss.
Government Oppression and Forced Assimilation
Throughout history, governments have deliberately suppressed minority languages like Kurdish, Tibetan, and Native American tongues through forced assimilation policies designed to unify national identity. This conscious destruction of languages continues today and is a major driver of extinction.
Tactics used by governments to eliminate minority languages include:
- Ban minority language use in schools, media, and public spaces.
- Provide government services and education exclusively in the majority national language.
- Ridicule and stigmatize minority languages to discourage use.
- Establish population transfers designed to break up linguistic communities.
- Imprison dissidents and activists promoting minority language rights.
These oppressive policies make parents afraid to teach their native tongues to children. Over time, this causes mass language extinction as younger generations never adopt their ancestral language.
Native American Boarding Schools
A potent example is the Native American boarding school system in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Indigenous children were taken from their families and sent to boarding schools where they were punished for speaking their tribal languages and forced to learn English.
This traumatic forced assimilation led to intergenerational language loss as boarding school alumni declined to teach Native languages to their own children, believing English offered more opportunity. Of the 300+ Indigenous languages originally spoken in North America, over 200 are now extinct or on the verge of extinction.
Sámi Languages in Scandinavia
The Sámi people, sometimes called Laplanders, are an indigenous Finno-Ugric group inhabiting northern Scandinavia and northwest Russia. For centuries, Norway, Sweden, and Russia implemented “Norwegianization” and “Russification” policies designed to stamp out the Sámi languages and assimilate the population.
Children were prohibited from speaking their mother tongue in boarding schools. Sámi languages were denigrated as backwards and uncivilized. This caused intergenerational disruption in passing Sámi languages down to younger generations, driving several Sámi tongues to extinction.
Cultural Genocide in Tibet and Xinjiang
More recently, the Chinese government has been accused of cultural genocide and forced assimilation policies in ethnic minority regions like Tibet and Xinjiang. Tactics include imprisoning intellectuals, banning minority languages from schools, demonizing local culture, and interning minorities in “re-education” camps.
This repression combined with the spread of Mandarin Chinese has severely threatened the survival of Tibetan and languages like Uyghur spoken by Muslim minorities. Despite resistance, China’s policies are resulting in a generational language shift away from minority tongues.
Lack of Viability Due to Small Population
A language needs a sizable community of living speakers, economic viability, and presence in education and media to survive. Many minority indigenous languages are only spoken by small populations in isolated rural areas, making them vulnerable to extinction.
According to UNESCO, over 40% of the world’s living languages have fewer than 10,000 speakers left. Unless living speaker bases grow and adequate intergenerational transmission occurs, these tiny languages will likely die out.
Very small language communities face uphill battles for survival due to lack of resources, political power, educational opportunities in the minority language, and community cohesion. Languages need sizeable populations to remain sustainable.
Moribund Languages
Languages classified as “moribund” or “nearly extinct” are spoken only by isolated populations of elderly native speakers with little to no transmission to younger generations. As these elderly speakers die off, the language dies with them if not adequately documented.
Examples of moribund languages include:
- Ainu in Japan
- Wichita in Oklahoma
- Manx in the Isle of Man
- Yaghan in Chile
Unless urgent action is taken by communities to revive usage and pass these languages on to children, their fate is terminal extinction. But moribund languages can sometimes be saved with community-based action and involvement.
Language Revitalization Efforts
Some small language communities have successfully grown speaker bases and revitalized moribund languages through grassroots efforts and community immersion schools. For example, Hawaiian became an official state language in Hawaii again after years of decline, and Maori recently became an official national language in New Zealand.
Still, active revitalization requires a united community willing to prioritize language learning and advocacy. Without this level of mobilization, most shrinking languages will continue moving closer to extinction due to lack of speakers and resources.
Conclusion
Language loss is a complex global phenomenon with many interconnected causes across history, politics, culture, technology, and population patterns. While reasons for extinction vary, common factors include the spread of dominant languages through globalization and urbanization, overt suppression of minority languages by governments, and moribund languages losing speakers until none are left.
With over 3,000 languages now endangered and the pace of loss rapidly accelerating, urgent action is required to document, protect, and revitalize threatened tongues before they vanish forever. Preserving language diversity ensures cultural heritage is not lost and empowers minority populations, but without intervention, 90% of all languages could fall silent within 100 years.