Languages are dying at an alarming rate, with approximately half of the world's 6,500 languages endangered or extinct. A language dies when no one speaks it anymore. As a language's domains of use shrink and its speakers become less proficient, the language gradually dies, as seen in the case of Annie and her Aboriginal language Dyirbal. When the current generation of speakers passes away, the language will likely become extinct if not revitalized. Gradual language loss and death occurs as communities shift to majority languages in more social contexts over time.

1. Language Death and
Language Loss

2. • A language dies when nobody speaks
it any more. (Crystal, 2003: 1)
• When all the people who speak a
language die, the language dies with
them. (Holmes, 1992: 61)

3. • Linguists estimate that of the approximately 6,
500 languages worldwide, about half are
endangered or on the brink of extinction
(Dastgoshadeh and Jalilzadeh, 2011).
• Holmes (1992) states that Manx has
completely died out in the Isle of Man.

4. • Cornish the effectively disappeared from
Cornwall in the 18th century stated by Holmes
(1992).
• Between 50 and 70 kinds of Aboriginal
language in Australia disappeared as a direct
result of the massacre of Aboriginal people.
(Holmes,1992).

5. • A community, such as
Turkish in England may
shift to English voluntarily.
(Holmes,1992).
• This involves the loss of
the language for the
individual concerned.
(Holmes,1992).

6. When a language dies gradually, as opposed to
all its speakers being wiped out by a massacre
or epidemic, the process is similar to that of
language shift.
(Holmes,1992)

7. • The functions of the
language are taken over in
one domain after another
by another language.
(Holmes,1992).
• As the domains in which
speakers use the language
shrink, the speakers of the
dying language become
gradually less proficient in
it. (Holmes,1992).

8. Annie (20) is a young speaker of
Study Case
Dyirbal, an Australian Aboriginal language.
She also speaks English which she learned
at school. There is no written Dyirbal
material for her to read, and there are
fewer and fewer contexts in which she can
appropriately hear and speak the
language. So she is steadily becoming less
proficiency in it. She can understand the
Dyirbal she hears used by older people in
her community, and she uses it to speak to
her grandmother. But her grandmother is
scathing about her ability Dyirbal, saying
Annie doesn’t speak the language properly.
(Holmes,1992).

9. • Annie is experiencing language loss.
• She uses English for most purposes, her
vocabulary in Dyirbal has shrunk and
shrunk.
• Annie finds herself putting words in the
order her grandmother uses in Dyirbal.
• It is clear that Annie’s Dyirbal is very
different from traditional Dyirbal.

10. • When Annie’s generation die, it is pretty
certain Dyirbal will die with them.
• The process of language death for the
language comes about through this kind of
gradual loss of fluency and competence by its
speakers. (Holmes,1992).

11. With the spread of a majority group language
into more and more domains, the number of
contexts in which individuals use the ethnic
language diminishes.
(Holmes,1992)

12. • In the wider community
the language may survive
for ritual or ceremonial
occasions. (Holmes,1992).
• Those who use it will be a
few in number and their
fluency is often restricted
to prayers and set
speeches or incantations.
(Holmes,1992).

13. • In Maori community in New Zealand, the
amount of Maori used in ceremonies is
entirely dependent on the availability of
respected elders who still retain some
knowledge of the appropriate discourse.
(Holmes,1992).
• Maori is now used in some communities only
for formal ceremonial speeches, prayers for
the sick, and perhaps for a prayer
to open a meeting. (Holmes,1992).