| Marcelo Dascal Endangered Languages | 
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Is TWENDI, a Bantu language
spoken
in Cameroon by 35 speakers - - the
youngest being 45 years old - -
endangered ?
Is WELSH, a Celtic language
spoken
in Wales by half a million speakers,
including many infants, an endangered
language ?
Is QUECHUA, a Quechuan language
spoken in the Andes by about one
million speakers - - whose number is
rapidly dwindling - - an endangered
language ?
Here are some criteria for characterizing an "endangered
language".
CRITERIA FOR DEFINING AN ENDANGERED LANGUAGE
etc...
These criteria define the danger of EXTINCTION for
living languages. I would add to this the danger faced by the
languages spoken by immigrant or other minority communities --
even if they remain alive and well in other countries.
Immigrant and Minority Languages
The Totonaca refused to send their children to a bilingual school. They claimed that their children learn Totonaca at home. What they need at school is to learn Spanish - the language they need in order to improve their lives.
Many Ethiopians who came to Israel were immediately drawn into the 'melting pot' by crash Hebrew courses. They even had their names changed to Hebrew names, in some cases.
And there is also the danger of "re-extinction" of already extinct languages.
This way seem paradoxical, but it isn't. A huge collective effort lies behind every case of an extinct language that 'comes alive' as an object of research : the collection, storage and classification of inscriptions, documents, historical evidence; decipering of storage writing systems; linguistic analysis of these materials; etc.
If not transmitted from generation to generation
of scientists, the complex abilities required to cope with each
extinct language will disappear, leading to the language's 're-extinction'
?
EXTINCT LANGUAGES CAN ALSO BE IN DANGER OF 'RE-EXTINCTION'
due to
etc...
Let us now go back to the question of whether there
should be language diversity and multiplicity or not:
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