An
extinct language is a
languageLanguage may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
that no longer has any speakers., or that is no longer in current use. Extinct languages are sometimes contrasted with
dead languagesIn linguistics, language death is a process that affects speech communities where the level of linguistic competence that speakers possess of a given language variety is decreased, eventually resulting in no native and/or fluent speakers of the variety...
, which are still known and used in special contexts in written form, but not as ordinary spoken languages for everyday communication. However, language extinction and language death are often equated.
Language loss
Normally the transition from a spoken to an extinct language occurs when a language undergoes
language deathIn linguistics, language death is a process that affects speech communities where the level of linguistic competence that speakers possess of a given language variety is decreased, eventually resulting in no native and/or fluent speakers of the variety...
while being directly replaced by a different one. For example,
Native American languagesIndigenous languages of the Americas are spoken by indigenous peoples from Alaska and Greenland to the southern tip of South America, encompassing the land masses which constitute the Americas. These indigenous languages consist of dozens of distinct language families as well as many language...
were replaced by
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
,
FrenchFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
,
PortuguesePortuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
, or
SpanishSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
as a result of colonization. The
Coptic languageCoptic or Coptic Egyptian is the current stage of the Egyptian language, a northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century. Egyptian began to be written using the Greek alphabet in the 1st century...
, although retained for
liturgicalLiturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...
use in Coptic Christian churches, was replaced for the purposes of daily life by
ArabicArabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
in its native Egypt.
By contrast to an extinct language which no longer has any speakers, a dead language may remain in use for
scientificScience is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
,
legalLaw is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
, or
ecclesiasticalReligion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
functions.
Old Church SlavonicOld Church Slavonic or Old Church Slavic was the first literary Slavic language, first developed by the 9th century Byzantine Greek missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius who were credited with standardizing the language and using it for translating the Bible and other Ancient Greek...
,
AvestanAvestan is an East Iranian language known only from its use as the language of Zoroastrian scripture, i.e. the Avesta, from which it derives its name...
,
CopticCoptic or Coptic Egyptian is the current stage of the Egyptian language, a northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century. Egyptian began to be written using the Greek alphabet in the 1st century...
, Biblical Hebrew,
Ge'ezGe'ez is an ancient South Semitic language that developed in the northern region of Ethiopia and southern Eritrea in the Horn of Africa...
,
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, and
SanskritSanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
are among the many dead languages used as
sacred languageA sacred language, "holy language" , or liturgical language, is a language that is cultivated for religious reasons by people who speak another language in their daily life.-Concept:...
s.
Sometimes a language that has changed so much that linguists describe it as a different language (or different stage) is called "extinct", as in the case of Old English, a forerunner of
Modern EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
. But in such cases, the language never ceased to be used by speakers, and as linguist's subdivisions in the process of language change are fairly arbitrary, such forerunner languages are not properly speaking extinct.
A language that currently has living native speakers is called a
modern languageA modern language is any human language that is currently in use. The term is used in language education to distinguish between languages which are used for day-to-day communication and dead classical languages such as Latin, Attic Greek, Sanskrit, and Classical Chinese, which are studied for...
.
EthnologueEthnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International , a Christian linguistic service organization, which studies lesser-known languages, to provide the speakers with Bibles in their native language and support their efforts in language development.The Ethnologue...
records 7,358 living languages known.
HebrewHebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
is an example of a nearly extinct spoken language (by the first definition above) that became a
lingua francaA lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.-Characteristics:"Lingua franca" is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic...
and a liturgical language that has been revived to become a living spoken language. There are other attempts at language revival. For example, young school children use
SanskritSanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
in revived language in
Mathoor villageMattur is a small village near the city of Shivamogga in Karnataka, South India, known for the usage of Sanskrit for day-to-day communication....
(India). In general, the success of these attempts has been subject to debate, as it is not clear they will ever become the common native language of a community of speakers.
It is believed that 90% of the circa 7,000 languages currently spoken in the world will have become extinct by 2050, as the world's language system has reached a crisis and is dramatically restructuring.
Globalization, development, and language extinction
As economic and cultural
globalizationGlobalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
and development continue to push forward, growing numbers of languages will become endangered and eventually, extinct. With increasing economic integration on national and regional scales, people find it easier to communicate and conduct business in the dominant languages of world commerce: English,
ChineseThe Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
, and
SpanishSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
.
In their study of contact-induced language change, American linguists Sarah Grey Thomason and
Terrence KaufmanTerrence Kaufman is an American linguist specializing in documentation of unwritten languages, Mesoamerican historical linguistics and language contact phenomena. He is currently a professor at the department of anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh....
state that in situations of cultural pressure (where populations must speak a dominant language), three linguistic outcomes may occur: first - and most commonly - a subordinate population may shift abruptly to the dominant language, leaving the native language to a sudden linguistic death. Second, the more gradual process of
language deathIn linguistics, language death is a process that affects speech communities where the level of linguistic competence that speakers possess of a given language variety is decreased, eventually resulting in no native and/or fluent speakers of the variety...
may occur over several generations. The third and most rare outcome is for the pressured group to maintain as much of its native language as possible, while borrowing elements of the dominant language's grammar (replacing all, or portions of, the grammar of the original language).
Institutions such as the education system, as well as (often global) forms of media such as the Internet, television, and print media play a significant role in the process of language loss. For example, immigrants from one country come to another, their kids go to school in the country, and the schools may teach them in the official language of the country rather than their native language.
Cultural anthropologist
Wade DavisEdmund Wade Davis is a Canadian anthropologist, ethnobotanist, author and photographer whose work has focused on worldwide indigenous cultures, especially in North and South America and particularly involving the traditional uses and beliefs associated with psychoactive plants...
points to the dangers of "
modernizationIn the social sciences, modernization or modernisation refers to a model of an evolutionary transition from a 'pre-modern' or 'traditional' to a 'modern' society. The teleology of modernization is described in social evolutionism theories, existing as a template that has been generally followed by...
" (often cited as reason for economic development) and globalization as threats to indigenous cultures and languages throughout the world. He argues that just as the biosphere is being eroded by these forces, so too is the "ethnosphere" - the cultural web of life.
Implications of language extinction
Estimates of future language loss range from half of more than 6000 currently spoken languages being lost in the next 200 years, to 90% by the year 2050. Wade Davis states that languages - as not simply bodies of vocabulary or sets of grammatical rules, but "old growth forests of the mind" - for the many and unique cultures of the world reflect different ways of being, thinking, and knowing.
As Davis puts it, language extinction effectively reduces the "entire range of the human imagination... to a more narrow modality of thought", and thus privileges the ways of knowing in dominant (and overwhelmingly European) languages such as English. Foucauldian ideas of power and knowledge, as both inseparable and symbiotic, are implicated in the universalizing of European knowledge as truth, and the rendering of other forms as less valid or false: mere superstition, folklore, or mythology. In the case of language extinction, those "voices" which are deemed to be inferior or secondary by colonizing, globalizing, or developing forces are literally silenced.
Davis also illustrates that languages are lost not because cultures are
destined to fade away (as proponents of environmental or cultural
determinismDeterminism is the general philosophical thesis that states that for everything that happens there are conditions such that, given them, nothing else could happen. There are many versions of this thesis. Each of them rests upon various alleged connections, and interdependencies of things and...
or
Social DarwinismSocial Darwinism is a term commonly used for theories of society that emerged in England and the United States in the 1870s, seeking to apply the principles of Darwinian evolution to sociology and politics...
may contend), but rather that they are "driven out of existence by identifiable forces that are beyond their capacity to adapt to"; he further remonstrates that "genocide, the physical extinction of a people is universally condemned, but ethnocide, the destruction of peoples' way of life is not only
not condemned, it's universally - in many quarters - celebrated as part of a development strategy."
Recently extinct languages
With last known speaker and/or date of death.
- Adai: (late 19th century)
- Aka-Bo
The Bo language, Aka-Bo , is an extinct Great Andamanese language, of the Northern group. It was spoken on the west central coast of North Andaman and on North Reef Island of the Andaman Islands in India...
: Boa Sr (2010)
- Akkala Sami
Akkala Sami is a Sami language that was spoken in the Sami villages of A´kkel and Ču´kksuâl, in the inland parts of the Kola Peninsula in Russia...
: Marja Sergina (2003)
- entire Alsean family
Alsea or Alsean was two closely related speech varieties spoken along the central Oregon coast. They are sometimes taken to be different languages, but it is difficult to be sure given the poor state of attestation; Mithun believes they were probably dialects of a single language.-Varieties:#...
- Alsea: John Albert (1942)
- Yaquina
Yaquina originally denoted a tribe of Native Americans, now nearly extinct , along with their language . The remaining Yaquina people live on the Siletz Reservation in Oregon, and are mostly of mixed blood. -External links:*...
: (1884)
- Apalachee
The Apalachee are a Native American people who historically lived in the Florida Panhandle, and now live primarily in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Their historical territory was known to the Spanish colonists as the Apalachee Province...
: (early 18th century)
- Arwi
Arwi is a written register of the Tamil language that uses an Arabic alphabet. It typically has extensive lexical influences from the Arabic language. Arwi was used extensively by the Muslim minority of Tamil Nadu state of India and Sri Lanka...
: (Early 19th Century)
- Aruá: (1877)
- Atakapa
Atakapa is an extinct language isolate native to southwestern Louisiana and nearby coastal eastern Texas. It was spoken by the Atakapa people .-Geographic variation:There were two varieties of Atakapa Atakapa is an extinct language isolate native to southwestern Louisiana and nearby coastal eastern...
: (early 20th century)
- Atsugewi
Atsugewi is an extinct Palaihnihan language of northeastern California spoken by the Hat Creek and Dixie Valley people. In 1962, there were four speakers out of an ethnic group of 200, all elderly.Astugewi is related to Achumawi...
: (1988)
- Beothuk
The Beothuk language , also called Beothukan, was spoken by the indigenous Beothuk people of Newfoundland. The Beothuk have been extinct since 1829 and there are few written accounts of their language, little is known about it. There have been claims of links with the neighbouring Algonquian...
: ShanawdithitShanawdithit , also noted as Shawnadithititis, Shawnawdithit, Nancy April and Nancy Shanawdithit, was the last known living member of the Beothuk people of Newfoundland, Canada. Also remembered for drawings she made towards the end of her life, Shawnawdithit was in her late twenties when she died...
(a.k.a. "Nancy April") (1829)
- entire Catawban family
The Catawban, or Eastern Siouan, languages form a small language family in east North America. The Catawban family is a branch of the larger Siouan Siouan–Catawban family.-Family division:The Catawban family consists of two languages:...
:
- Catawba
The Catawba are a federally recognized tribe of Native Americans, known as the Catawba Indian Nation. They live in the Southeast United States, along the border between North and South Carolina near the city of Rock Hill...
: before 1960
- Woccon
- Cayuse
The Cayuse are a Native American tribe in the state of Oregon in the United States. The Cayuse tribe shares a reservation in northeastern Oregon with the Umatilla and the Walla Walla tribes as part of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation...
: (ca. 1930s)
- Chemakum
The Chemakum language was spoken by the Chemakum, a Native American group that once lived on western Washington state's Olympic Peninsula. The Chemakum language was very similar to the Quileute language...
: (ca. 1940s)
- Chicomuceltec
Chicomuceltec is a Mayan language formerly spoken in the region defined by the municipios of Chicomuselo, Mazapa de Madero, and Amatenango de la Frontera in Chiapas, Mexico, as well as some nearby areas of Guatemala...
: (late 20th century)
- Chimariko
The Chimariko were a Native American group living primarily in a narrow, 20-mile section of canyon on the Trinity River in Trinity County in northwestern California....
: (ca. 1930s)
- Chitimacha
The Chitimacha language is a language isolate historically spoken by the Chitimacha people of Louisiana, United States. It went extinct in 1940 with the death of the last fluent speaker, Delphine Ducloux....
: Benjamin Paul (1934) & Delphine Ducloux (1940)
- entire Chumashan family
Chumashan is a family of languages that were spoken on the southern California coast by Native American Chumash people.From the Coastal plains and valleys of San Luis Obispo to Malibu), neighboring inland and Transverse Ranges valleys and canyons east to bordering the San Joaquin Valley; and on...
: Barbareño language was last to become extinct.
- Barbareño: Mary Yee (1965)
- Ineseño
- Island Chumash
- Obispeño
- Purisimeño
- Ventureño
- Coahuilteco: (18th century)
- Cochimí
The Cochimí are the aboriginal inhabitants of the central part of the Baja California peninsula, from El Rosario in the north to San Javier in the south....
(a Yuman language): (early 19th century)
- entire Comecrudan family
Comecrudan refers to a group of possibly related languages spoken in the southernmost part of Texas and in northern Mexico along the Rio Grande. Comecrudo is the most well-known.Very little is known about these languages or the people who spoke them...
- Comecrudo: recorded from children (Andrade, Emiterio, Joaquin, & others) of last speakers in 1886
- Garza
Comecrudan refers to a group of possibly related languages spoken in the southernmost part of Texas and in northern Mexico along the Rio Grande. Comecrudo is the most well-known.Very little is known about these languages or the people who spoke them...
: last recorded in 1828
- Mamulique: last recorded in 1828
- entire Coosan family
The Coosan language family consists of two languages spoken along the southern Oregon coast. Both languages are now extinct.-Classification:* Hanis* Miluk...
- Hanis: Martha Johnson (1972)
- Miluk: Annie Miner Peterson (1939)
- all Costanoan
The Ohlone people, also known as the Costanoan, are a Native American people of the central California coast. When Spanish explorers and missionaries arrived in the late 18th century, the Ohlone inhabited the area along the coast from San Francisco Bay through Monterey Bay to the lower Salinas Valley...
languages (which make up a subfamily of the Utian language familyUtian is a family of indigenous languages spoken in the central and north portion of California, United States. The Miwok and Ohlone peoples both spoke languages in the Utian linguistic group...
): (ca. 1940s)
- Karkin
Karkin is a name of one sub-group of the indigenous Ohlone people of California, as well as the name of the language they spoke....
- Mutsun
- Northern Costanoan:
- Ramaytush
The Ramaytush are one of the linguistic subdivisions of the Ohlone Native Americans of Northern California. Historically, the Ramaytush inhabited the San Francisco Peninsula between San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean in the area which is now San Francisco and San Mateo Counties.The Ramaytush...
- Chochenyo
The Chochenyo are one of the divisions of the indigenous Ohlone people of Northern California...
- Tamyen
The Tamyen are one of eight linguistic divisions of the Ohlone people groups of Native Americans who lived in Northern California. The Tamyen lived throughout the Santa Clara Valley...
- Awaswas
The Awaswas people are one of eight divisions of the Ohlone Native Americans of Northern California...
- Rumsen
Rumsen is one of eight language divisions of the Ohlone Native American people of Northern California...
: last recorded speaker died 1939 in Monterey, California.
- Chalon
The Chalon are one of eight divisions of the Ohlone people of Native Americans who lived in Northern California. Chalon is also the name of their spoken language, listed as one of the Ohlone languages of the Utian family...
- Cotoname: last recorded from Santos Cavázos and Emiterio in 1886
- Crimean Gothic
Crimean Gothic was a Gothic dialect spoken by the Crimean Goths in some isolated locations in Crimea until the late 18th century....
: language vanished by the 1800s
- Cuman
Cuman was a Kipchak Turkic language spoken by the Cumans and Kipchaks; the language was similar to the today's Crimean Tatar language...
: (early 17th century)
- Dalmatian
Dalmatian was a Romance language spoken in the Dalmatia region of Croatia, and as far south as Kotor in Montenegro. The name refers to a pre-Roman tribe of the Illyrian linguistic group, Dalmatae...
: Tuone UdainaTuone Udaina was the last speaker of the Dalmatian language. He was the main source of knowledge about his parents' dialect, that of the island of Veglia , for the linguist Matteo Bartoli, who recorded it in 1897...
, (June 10, 1898)
- Esselen
The Esselen were a Native American linguistic group in the hypothetical Hokan language family, who resided on the Central California coast and the coastal mountains, including what is now known as the Big Sur region in Monterey County, California...
: report of few speakers left in 1833, extinct before end 19th century
- Eyak
Eyak is an extinct Na-Dené language that was historically spoken by the Eyak people, indigenous to southcentral Alaska, near the mouth of the Copper River.The closest relatives of Eyak are the Athabaskan languages...
(a Na-Dené languageNa-Dene is a Native American language family which includes at least the Athabaskan languages, Eyak, and Tlingit languages. An inclusion of Haida is controversial....
): Marie Smith Jones, January 21, 2008
- Gabrielino
-Collected by C. Hart Merriam :Numbers# Po-koo /bo'kʰøː/# Wěh-hā /ʋɛj'χɒː/# Pah-hā /pa'χɒː/# Wah-chah /ʋa'ʃɒχ/# Mah-har /ma'χɒʁ/# Pah-vah-hā /pa'va'χɒː/# Wah-chah-kav-e-ah /ʋa'ʃa'kʰav̥eʲa/...
(an Uto-AztecanUto-Aztecan or Uto-Aztekan is a Native American language family consisting of over 30 languages. Uto-Aztecan languages are found from the Great Basin of the Western United States , through western, central and southern Mexico Uto-Aztecan or Uto-Aztekan is a Native American language family...
language): elderly speakers last recorded in 1933
- Galice-Applegate (an Athabaskan
Athabaskan or Athabascan is a large group of indigenous peoples of North America, located in two main Southern and Northern groups in western North America, and of their language family...
language):
- Galice dialect: Hoxie Simmons (1963)
- Greenlandic Norse
Greenlandic Norse is an extinct North Germanic language that was spoken in the Norse settlements of Greenland until their demise in the late 15th century...
: (by the late 15th century (16th century at the latest))
- Modern Gutnish
Modern Gutnish is the native language of the Gotlandic people on the island of Gotland in present-day Sweden. It was both a spoken and written language until late medieval times. Today it exists as a spoken language, but is to some degree mixed with Swedish, Danish and German. It is an open issue...
(by the 18th century)
- Jassic
Jassic is a dialect of the Ossetian language and the name of a nomadic tribe settled in Hungary in the 13th century.The Jassic people came to Hungary together with the Cumanians, chased by the Mongol-Tatars. They were admitted by the Hungarian king Béla IV, hoping that they would assist in...
(17th century)
- Juaneño
The Juaneño or Acagchemem are a Native American group from Southern California. The Juaneño lived in what is now part of Orange and San Diego Counties and received their Spanish name from the priests of the California mission chain due to their proximity to Mission San Juan Capistrano...
(an Uto-AztecanUto-Aztecan or Uto-Aztekan is a Native American language family consisting of over 30 languages. Uto-Aztecan languages are found from the Great Basin of the Western United States , through western, central and southern Mexico Uto-Aztecan or Uto-Aztekan is a Native American language family...
language): last recorded in 1934
- Kakadu (Gagadju): Big Bill Neidjie
Big Bill Neidjie was the last surviving speaker of the Gaagudju language, an indigenous language from northern Kakadu after which the World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park is named. He was a senior elder of Kakadu National Park and a traditional owner of the Bunitj estate in northern Kakadu,...
(July 2002)
- entire Kalapuyan family
Kalapuyan is a small extinct language family that was spoken in the Willamette Valley of Western Oregon, United States. It consists of three languages.-Family division:Kalapuyan consists of...
:
- Central Kalapuya
Central Kalapuyan was a Kalapuyan language indigenous to the central and southern Willamette Valley in Oregon in the United States. It was spoken by various bands of the Kalapuya peoples who inhabited the valley up through the middle of the 19th century. The language is closely related to Northern...
:
- Ahantchuyuk, Luckimute, Mary's River, and Lower McKenzie River dialects: last speakers were about 6 persons who were all over 60 in 1937
- Santiam dialect: (ca. 1950s)
- Northern Kalapuya
Northern Kalapuyan is a Kalapuyan language indigenous to northwestern Oregon in the United States. It was spoken by Kalapuya groups in the northern Willamette Valley southwest of present-day Portland....
:
- Tualatin dialect: Louis Kenoyer (1937)
- Yamhill dialect: Louisa Selky (1915)
- Yonkalla
Yoncalla is a Kalapuyan language once spoken in southwest Oregon in the United States. In the 19th century it was spoken by the Yoncalla band of the Kalapuya people in the Umpqua River valley...
: last recorded in 1937 from Laura Blackery Albertson who only partly remembered it.
- Kamassian: last native speaker, Klavdiya Plotnikova
Klavdiya Zakharovna Plotnikova-Andzhighatova was the last living speaker of the Kamassian language . Her father was a Russian named Zakhar Perov and her mother was a Kamassian named Afanasiya Andzhighatova...
died in (1989)
- Karankawa
Karankawa is the extinct, unclassified language of the Texan coast, where the Karankawa people migrated between the mainland and the barrier islands. It was not closely related to other known languages in the area, much of which are also poorly attested, and may have been a language isolate...
: (1858)
- Kathlamet (a Chinook
Chinookan is a small family of languages spoken in Oregon and Washington along the Columbia River by Chinook peoples.-Family division:Chinookan languages consists of three languages with multiple varieties. There is some dispute over classification, and there are two ISO 639-3 codes assigned: and...
an language): (ca. 1930s)
- Kitanemuk
The Kitanemuk were a Native American tribe and people who lived in the Tehachapi Mountains and the Antelope Valley area of the western Mojave Desert of southern California, United States.-Language:...
(an Uto-AztecanUto-Aztecan or Uto-Aztekan is a Native American language family consisting of over 30 languages. Uto-Aztecan languages are found from the Great Basin of the Western United States , through western, central and southern Mexico Uto-Aztecan or Uto-Aztekan is a Native American language family...
language): Marcelino Rivera, Isabella Gonzales, Refugia Duran (last recorded 1937)
- Kitsai
The Kitsai language is an extinct member of the Caddoan language family. It was spoken in Oklahoma by the Kichai tribe and became extinct in the 1930s. It is thought to be related to Wichita but more closely to Pawnee...
(a CaddoanThe Caddoan languages are a family of Native American languages. They are spoken by Native Americans in parts of the Great Plains of the central United States, from North Dakota south to Oklahoma.-Family division:...
language): Kai Kai (ca. 1940)
- Kwalhioqua-Clatskanie (an Athabaskan
Athabaskan or Athabascan is a large group of indigenous peoples of North America, located in two main Southern and Northern groups in western North America, and of their language family...
language): children of the last speakers remembered a few words, recorded in 1935 & 1942
- Clatskanie dialect: father of Willie Andrew (ca. 1870)
- Kwalhioqua dialect: mother of Lizzie Johnson (1910)
- Lower Chinook
Lower Chinook, also simple Chinook or Chinook proper, is a highly endangered language of the US Pacific Northwest.-Dialects:* Clatsop was spoken in northwestern Oregon around the mouth of the Columbia River and the Clatsop Plains .* Shoalwater , now extinct ...
(a ChinookChinookan is a small family of languages spoken in Oregon and Washington along the Columbia River by Chinook peoples.-Family division:Chinookan languages consists of three languages with multiple varieties. There is some dispute over classification, and there are two ISO 639-3 codes assigned: and...
an language): (ca. 1930s)
- Mahican
The Mahican are an Eastern Algonquian Native American tribe, originally settling in the Hudson River Valley . After 1680, many moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts. During the early 1820s and 1830s, most of the Mahican descendants migrated westward to northeastern Wisconsin...
: last spoken in Wisconsin (ca. 1930s)
- Manx
Manx , also known as Manx Gaelic, and as the Manks language, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, historically spoken by the Manx people. Only a small minority of the Island's population is fluent in the language, but a larger minority has some knowledge of it...
: Ned MaddrellEdward "Ned" Maddrell was a fisherman from the Isle of Man who was the last surviving native speaker of the Manx language.Following the death of Mrs. Sage Kinvig Edward "Ned" Maddrell (1877 – December 27, 1974) was a fisherman from the Isle of Man who was the last surviving native speaker of the...
(December 1974) (but is being revivedLanguage revitalization, language revival or reversing language shift is the attempt by interested parties, including individuals, cultural or community groups, governments, or political authorities, to reverse the decline of a language. If the decline is severe, the language may be endangered,...
as a second languageA second language or L2 is any language learned after the first language or mother tongue. Some languages, often called auxiliary languages, are used primarily as second languages or lingua francas ....
)
- Mattole-Bear River (an Athabaskan
Athabaskan or Athabascan is a large group of indigenous peoples of North America, located in two main Southern and Northern groups in western North America, and of their language family...
language):
- Bear River dialect: material from last elderly speaker recorded (ca. 1929)
- Mattole dialect: material recorded (ca. 1930)
- Mbabaram: Albert Bennett (1972)
- Miami-Illinois
The Miami-Illinois language is a Native American Algonquian language formerly spoken in the United States, primarily in Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, western Ohio and adjacent areas along the Mississippi River by the tribes of the Inoca or Illinois Confederacy, including the Kaskaskia, Peoria,...
: (1989)
- Mochica
Mochica is a Chimuan language formerly spoken along the northwest coast of Peru and in an inland village. First documented in 1607, the language was widely spoken in the area during the 17th and early 18th century...
: ca. 1950s
- Mohegan
The Mohegan tribe is an Algonquian-speaking tribe that lives in the eastern upper Thames River valley of Connecticut. Mohegan translates to "People of the Wolf". At the time of European contact, the Mohegan and Pequot were one people, historically living in the lower Connecticut region...
: Fidelia Fielding (1908)
- Molala
Molala is the extinct and poorly attested Plateau Penutian language of the Molala people. It is first attested along the Deschutes River, and later moved to the Molalla and Santiam rivers, and to the headwaters of the Umpqua and Rogue rivers. It was once thought to be close to Cayuse...
: Fred Yelkes (1958)
- Munichi: Victoria Huancho Icahuate (late 1990s)
- Natchez: Watt Sam & Nancy Raven (early 1930s)
- Negerhollands
Negerhollands is a Dutch-based creole language that was once spoken in the Danish West Indies, now known as the U.S. Virgin Islands. Dutch is its superstrate language with Danish, English, French, Spanish, and African elements incorporated...
: Alice Stevenson (1987)
- Nooksack: Sindick Jimmy (1977)
- Northern Pomo
Northern Pomo is an extinct Pomoan language formerly spoken around Clear Lake in Lake County, California by the Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake, one of the several Pomo peoples....
: (1994)
- Nottoway (an Iroquoian
The Iroquoian languages are a First Nation and Native American language family.-Family division:*Ruttenber, Edward Manning. 1992 [1872]. History of the Indian tribes of Hudson's River. Hope Farm Press....
language): last recorded before 1836
- Pentlatch (a Salishan
The Salishan languages are a group of languages of the Pacific Northwest...
language): Joe Nimnim (1940)
- Pánobo (a Pano–Tacanan language): 1991
- Pochutec
Pochutec is an extinct Uto-Aztecan language of the Nahuan branch which was spoken in and around the town of Pochutla on the Pacific coast of Oaxaca, Mexico. In 1917 it was documented in a monograph by Franz Boas, who considered the language nearly extinct...
(Uto-AztecanUto-Aztecan or Uto-Aztekan is a Native American language family consisting of over 30 languages. Uto-Aztecan languages are found from the Great Basin of the Western United States , through western, central and southern Mexico Uto-Aztecan or Uto-Aztekan is a Native American language family...
last documented 1917 by Franz BoasFranz Boas was a German-American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology" and "the Father of Modern Anthropology." Like many such pioneers, he trained in other disciplines; he received his doctorate in physics, and did...
- Polabian
The Polabian language is an extinct West Slavic language that was spoken by the Polabian Slavs in present-day North-Eastern Germany around the Elbe river, from which derives its name...
(a SlavicThe Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
language): (late 18th century)
- Sadlermiut
The Sadlermiut were an Eskimo group living in near isolation mainly on and around Coats Island, Walrus Island, and Southampton Island in Hudson Bay...
Died by disease in 1902.
- Salinan
The Salinan Native Americans lived in what is now the Central Coast of California, in the Salinas Valley. Said to have gone extinct by the Census of 1930, the Salinan Native Americans survived and are now in the process of applying for tribal recognition from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.There...
: (ca. 1960)
- entire Shastan family
The Shastan family consisted of four languages, spoken in present-day northern California and southern Oregon.-Family division:# Konomihu # New River Shasta # Okwanuchu # Shasta ...
- Konomihu
- New River Shasta
- Okwanuchu
The Okwanuchu were one of a number of small Shastan-speaking tribes of Native Americans in Northern California, who were closely related to the adjacent larger Shasta tribe...
- Shasta
-External links:* overview at the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages*...
: 3 elderly speakers in 1980, extinct by 1990
- Sirenik Last speaker died of old age in 1997.
- Siuslaw
Siuslaw is one of the three Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians located on the southwest Oregon Pacific coast in the United States. The Siuslaw language is extinct.-External links:***...
: (ca. 1970s)
- Slovincian (a Slavic
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
language): (20th century)
- Sowa
Sowa was the original language of south-central Pentecost island in Vanuatu. In recent times it has been totally displaced by Apma, a neighbouring language. Sowa is very closely related to Ske, another south Pentecost language....
(a language of VanuatuVanuatu , officially the Republic of Vanuatu , is an island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is some east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, west of Fiji, and southeast of the Solomon Islands, near New Guinea.Vanuatu was...
): last fluent speaker died in 2000
- Susquehannock
The Susquehannock people were Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans who lived in areas adjacent to the Susquehanna River and its tributaries from the southern part of what is now New York, through Pennsylvania, to the mouth of the Susquehanna in Maryland at the north end of the Chesapeake Bay...
: all last speakers murdered in 1763
- Takelma
Takelma was the language spoken by the Takelma people. It was first extensively described by Edward Sapir in his graduate thesis, The Takelma Language of Southwestern Oregon...
: Molly Orton (or Molly Orcutt) & Willie Simmons (both not fully fluent) last recorded in 1934
- Tasmanian: (late 19th century)
- Tataviam
The Tataviam language was spoken by the Tataviam people of the upper Santa Clara River basin, Santa Susana Mountains, and Sierra Pelona Mountains in southern California. It had become extinct by 1916 and is known only from a few early records, notably a word list collected by the linguist John P...
(an Uto-AztecanUto-Aztecan or Uto-Aztekan is a Native American language family consisting of over 30 languages. Uto-Aztecan languages are found from the Great Basin of the Western United States , through western, central and southern Mexico Uto-Aztecan or Uto-Aztekan is a Native American language family...
language): Juan José Fustero who remembered only a few words of his grandparents' language (recorded 1913)
- Teteté (a Tucanoan language)
- Tillamook
Tillamook is an extinct Salishan language, formerly spoken by the Tillamook people in northwestern Oregon, United States. The last fluent speaker is believed to have died in the 1970s; between 1965 and 1972, in an effort to prevent the language being destroyed, a group of researchers from the...
(a SalishanThe Salishan languages are a group of languages of the Pacific Northwest...
language): (1970)
- Tonkawa
The Tonkawa language was spoken in Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico by the Tonkawa people. A language isolate, with no known related languages, Tonkawa is now extinct...
: 6 elderly people in 1931
- Tsetsaut (an Athabaskan
Athabaskan or Athabascan is a large group of indigenous peoples of North America, located in two main Southern and Northern groups in western North America, and of their language family...
language): last fluent speaker was elderly man recorded in 1894
- Tunica: Sesostrie Youchigant
Sesostrie Youchigant was the last native speaker of the Tunica language. He worked with linguist Mary Haas to describe what he remembered of the language, and the description was published in A Grammar of the Tunica Language in 1939.-External links:...
(ca. mid 20th century)
- Ubykh
Ubykh or Ubyx is an extinct language of the Northwestern Caucasian group, spoken by the Ubykh people...
: Tevfik EsençTevfik Esenç was a Circassian exile in Turkey and the last known fully competent speaker of the Ubykh language.Esenç was raised by his Ubykh-speaking grandparents for a time in the village of Hacı Osman in Turkey, and he served a term as the muhtar of that village, before receiving a post in the...
(October 1992)
- Most dialects of Upper Chinook (a Chinook
Chinookan is a small family of languages spoken in Oregon and Washington along the Columbia River by Chinook peoples.-Family division:Chinookan languages consists of three languages with multiple varieties. There is some dispute over classification, and there are two ISO 639-3 codes assigned: and...
an language) are extinct, except for the Wasco-Wishram dialect. The ClackamasThe Clackamas Indians are a tribe of Native Americans of the U.S. state of Oregon who traditionally lived along the Clackamas River in the Willamette Valley. Lewis and Clark estimated their population at 1800 in 1806...
dialect became extinct in the 1930s, other dialects have little documentation. (The Wasco-Wishram languageUpper Chinook, also known as Kiksht, Columbia Chinook, and Wasco-Wishram after its only living dialect, is a highly endangered language of the US Pacific Northwest. It had 69 speakers as of 1990, of which 7 were monolingual: five Wasco and two Wishram...
is still spoken by five elders.)
- Upper Umpqua
Upper Umpqua is an extinct Athabascan language once spoken along the south fork of the Umpqua River near the Oregon coast. It has been extinct for at least fifty years and little is known about it. Some data was collected by Melville Jacobs...
: Wolverton Orton, last recorded in 1942
- Vegliot Dalmatian
Dalmatian was a Romance language spoken in the Dalmatia region of Croatia, and as far south as Kotor in Montenegro. The name refers to a pre-Roman tribe of the Illyrian linguistic group, Dalmatae...
: Tuone UdainaTuone Udaina was the last speaker of the Dalmatian language. He was the main source of knowledge about his parents' dialect, that of the island of Veglia , for the linguist Matteo Bartoli, who recorded it in 1897...
(Italian: Antonio Udina) (10 June 1898)
- Wappo
Wappo is an extinct language that was spoken in the Alexander Valley north of San Francisco by the Wappo Native Americans. The last fluent speaker, Laura Fish Somersal, died in 1990. Wappo's language death is attributed to the use of English in schools and economic situations such as the workplace...
: Laura Fish Somersal 1990
- Wiyot
Wiyot is an extinct Algic language, formerly spoken by the Wiyot people of Humboldt Bay, California. The language's last native speaker, Della Prince, died in 1962...
: Della Prince (1962)
- Yana
The Yana people were a group of Native Americans indigenous to Northern California in the central Sierra Nevada Mountains, on the western side of the range. The Yana-speaking people comprised four groups: the Northern Yana, the Central Yana, the Southern Yana, and the Yahi...
: IshiIshi was the last member of the Yahi, the last surviving group of the Yana people of the U.S. state of California. Ishi is believed to have been the last Native American in Northern California to have lived most of his life completely outside the European American culture...
(1916)
- Yola
Yola is an extinct West Germanic language formerly spoken in Ireland. A branch of Middle English, it evolved separately among the English who followed the Norman barons Strongbow and Robert Fitzstephen to eastern Ireland in 1169....
related to English (mid-19th century)
See also
- Endangered language
An endangered language is a language that is at risk of falling out of use. If it loses all its native speakers, it becomes a dead language. If eventually no one speaks the language at all it becomes an "extinct language"....
- Language death
In linguistics, language death is a process that affects speech communities where the level of linguistic competence that speakers possess of a given language variety is decreased, eventually resulting in no native and/or fluent speakers of the variety...
- List of endangered languages
- List of languages by time of extinction
- Language revival
Language revitalization, language revival or reversing language shift is the attempt by interested parties, including individuals, cultural or community groups, governments, or political authorities, to reverse the decline of a language. If the decline is severe, the language may be endangered,...
- :Category:Extinct languages
External links