Preserving Voices: The Battle Against Language Extinction

Saving endangered languages

Perhaps none of us know what it is like to speak a language only a handful of people speak, to be one of only a few with whom you can communicate. Maybe a more familiar experience is not being able to speak in the language of your culture or ancestors. Yet, for countless individuals, the inability to converse in the language of their heritage is an all-too-familiar reality as these historic languages teeter on the brink of extinction.

Anywhere from 92% to 99% of Native American languages are endangered. Over 20% of the world’s languages are expected to go extinct by 2100. At a rate of one every couple of months, languages have been dying at accelerating speeds. Globalization, imperialism, and monolingual education are all major contributing factors to this problem.

In recent years, several North American indigenous languages have been the subject of revitalization efforts. The Massachusett (Wôpanâak) language has five native speakers for the first time in 150 years. The last fluent speaker of Chochenyo—native to the East Bay—died in 1939. However, using scholarly literature and cross-language comparison, there are conversationally fluent speakers.

Jessie ‘Little Doe’ Baird, who helped revitalize Wôpanâak. Courtesy MacArthur Foundation.

How do languages die?

Determining the vitality of a language depends on many variables, but the use of the language by youth is one of the most important. One of the critical signs of language endangerment is that the majority of speakers are elderly. If a language is not passed down to children, then within only a few generations, it could vanish from the face of the Earth.

Many factors can cause languages to be left in older generations. For instance, when a culture is imposed upon another forcibly through imperialism, it is socially and economically beneficial to adapt to avoid being left behind. However, this means that the heritage language is disregarded. Other cases are more extreme.

From the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century, a system of Indian boarding schools was established in the United States and Canada. In the case of Native American languages, they were forcibly and violently suppressed through ethnocide, the destruction of culture while keeping the people. After all, “kill the Indian, save the man,” right?

Indian Boarding School in Tacoma, Washington. Courtesy GetArchive.

–and how do we stop it?

The actions of the past are in the past, and we cannot change that. However, moving forward, we can make efforts to raise awareness of dying languages and take active steps to keep them alive.

As the 21st century moves forward, more federally recognized tribes are working toward revitalization. Language nests, master/apprentice programs, and online lessons are all popular methods of doing so. If you see these programs, promote them! Don't discourage the use of non-English languages; celebrate it!