1. Language Shift and Language Death
Daniel Schlunegger
Sascha Kocher
Basil Rohrer

2. Overview Terminology Some numbers Classifications
Types of language death
Sudden death (linguicide)
Radical death
Gradual death
Bottom-up / Top-down

3. Terminology
Schmid, Monika S. Language Attrition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

4. Terminology Language death A dead language
When the last speaker is dead
Extinct language
A dead language
e.g. Ancient Greek, Latin, Old English, ...
May still be used in science or as sacred languages
Crystal, David. "What is language death?" In Language Death, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
"Extinct language." In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. n.d. Accessed May 6, 

5. Terminology Language shift Language attrition Aphasia
Weinreich: "the change from the habitual use of one language to that of another" (1953, p.68)
Community of speakers shifts from one language to another
In most cases part of language death
Language attrition
Loss of proficiency in a language by a healthy individual
Aphasia
pathological, brain injury
- Crystal, David. "Why do languages die?" In Language Death, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
- Schmid, Monika S. Language Attrition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004
- Weinreich, Uriel. Languages in Contact, Findings and Problems. New York: Linguistic Circle of New York, 1953

6. Some numbers 5000 – 7000 living languages in the world
Half of them are going to disappear in the course of the current century
Every two weeks one language dies out
96% of all languages are spoken by only 4% of the population
- Crystal, David. "What is language death?" In Language Death, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
- Lewis, M. Paul, Gary F. Simons, and Charles D. Fennig (eds.), Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Seventeenth edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Online version: (Accessed May 6, 2013)

7. Classifications Fishman‘s Scale for endangered languages Stage 8
Only a few isolated old folks speak the language
Stage 7
Speakers are socially integrated but beyond child-bearing age
Stage 6
Some informal oral intergenerational use of the language
Stage 5
Language is alive and well
Stage 4
Language is taught and required in elementary schools
Stage 3
Language is used in business and by employees in lower work sphere
Stage 2
Language is used by lower government and mass media
Stage 1
Language is used by higher government and in higher education
Adapted from Fishman (1991); Černý (2010)
Fishman, Joshua A. Reversing Language Shift Theoretical and Empirical Foundations of Assistance to Threatened Languages. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 1991
- Miroslav Černý. “Language Death versus Language Survival: A Global Perspective.” In Beyond Globalisation: Exploring the Limits of Globalisation in the Regional Context (conference proceedings), Ostrava: University of Ostrava Czech Republic,

8. Types of language death
Sudden death (linguicide)
Radical death
Gradual death
Bottom-up / Top-down death

9. Sudden death (linguicide)
- In a short period of time a language becomes completely extinct (no occurance of language shift)
Death of all or almost all of it‘s speakers
Because of catastrophic natural causes, genocide, diseases, civil wars
Resulting in a high mortality and decay of the community
e.g. The Black War in Tasmania
- Campbell, Lyle, and Martha C. Muntzel. "The structural consequences of language death." In Investigating Obsolescence: Studies in Language Contraction and Death, edited by Nancy C Dorian, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989
- Crystal, David. "Why do languages die?" In Language Death, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

10. Radical death Similar to sudden death
fast decline of the language
often political repression and genocide
Loss of language "out of selfdefence, a survival strategy" (Campbell & Muntzel, 1989)
e.g. El Salvador (1932):
Insurgents of a revolt were assumed to be "communist-inspired Indians" Those identified were killed (10000 – 40000)
Out of fear, people stopped speaking their language (Lenca, Cacaopera and Pipil)
- Campbell, Lyle, and Martha C. Muntzel. "The structural consequences of language death." In Investigating Obsolescence: Studies in Language Contraction and Death, edited by Nancy C Dorian, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989
- Crystal, David. "Why do languages die?" In Language Death, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
- University of California, San Diego. "SSHL: Latin American Election Statistics: El Salvador elections and events " Internet Archive: Wayback Machine. Accessed May 7, 

11. Gradual death Gradual language shift towards the dominant language
"immense pressure (...) to speak the dominant language" (Crystal, 2000)
Intermediate stage of bilingualism
Young generation becomes more proficient in the new language and less proficient in the old language.
- Campbell, Lyle, and Martha C. Muntzel. "The structural consequences of language death." In Investigating Obsolescence: Studies in Language Contraction and Death, edited by Nancy C Dorian, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989
- Crystal, David. "Why do languages die?" In Language Death, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000

12. Bottom-up / Top-down Bottom up Top down
Language change starts at home, in the family and in peer-groups
“latinate pattern” which has been identified in Uto-Aztecan “where the language is lost first in the contexts of domestic intimacy and last in the most elevated ritual routines“ (Hill, 1983)
Top down
Language change starts at a higher level (e.g. government)
Language policy and laws
Campbell, Lyle, and Martha C. Muntzel. "The structural consequences of language death." In Investigating Obsolescence: Studies in Language Contraction and Death, edited by Nancy C Dorian, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989
Crystal, David. "Why do languages die?" In Language Death, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000
Hill, Jane H. "Language Death in Uto-Aztecan." International Journal of American Linguistics 49, no. 3 (1983): doi: /
"Language death." In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. n.d. Accessed May 7, 

13. To conclude
There is never only one single factor responsible for language death
Factors which put people in physical danger are mainly responsible for “sudden death“ and “radical death“
Factors which change the culture of the people are mainly responsible for “gradual death“

14. Language shift / death and Colonisation
Overview
Colonial nations
3 different types of colonisation
Diseases typical for colonies
Pidgin
Creoles

15. Colonisation Which countries were the 5 biggest colonisers? Portugal
France
Spain
Britain
Netherlands

16. 16th century Colonisation

17. 3 different types of colonisation, according to Mufwene (2002)
Trade colonies
Exploitation colonies
Settlement colonies

18. Trade colonies
First colonies, especially at west coast of Africa and Asia
from 15th to 18th century
Languages: anything (trial and error)
Pidgin
 No languages endangered

19. Exploitation colonies
Many trade colonies turned into exploitation colonies
Lingua franca
Pidgin
Urban vernacular
Examples for linguas francas:
Swahili in East Africa
Wolof in Senegal
Lingala in the Congo
Hausa in Nigeria (Mufwene, 2002)
British empire: Colonial language policy (Brutt-Griffler, 2002)

20. Settlement colonies
Produced monolingualism, favouring language of colonising nation (English, Spanish, Portugiese)
Languages of slaves and europeans from other countries doomed
Plantation and non-plantation settlement colonies
Indigenous languages lost due to diseases / war / relocation / language shift (adaptation)

21. Diseases in settlement colonies
Smallpox
Measles
Yellow fever
Influenza
Cholera
Syphilis
Tuberculosis …
Over 90% of indigenous people killed in the Americas (Crystal, 2000)

22. Exploitation colonies Settlement colonies
Trade colonies
Exploitation colonies
Settlement colonies
West coast of Africa
India
Zanzibar
No significant loss of indigenous languages
Purpose: Bring new goods to european countries.
Colonists and indigenous people on equal levels
Africa and Asia
No significant loss of indigenous languages, not much pressure to shift
Indigenous people should keep their languages
Lingua franca (eventually led to language shift)
Purpose: bring new goods to european countries/ control the sources
Colonists were minority
Caribean islands, Australia, New Zealand
Huge language loss
Purpose: new homes for colonists
Colonists were majority of people, ecological pressure for language shift (in non-plantation colonies)

23. 18th century Colonisation

24. 4th type of colonisation
La Réunion and Mauritius by the French

26. 19th century Colonisation

27. Pidgin
From Chinese word for business (in Canton, even though no colony)
No native languages, are created (
Developed out of contacts between colonial and indigenous languages
Colonial language functioned as superstrate language which provided the vocabulary
Lingua franca in trade colonies
Examples:
I no no  I don’t know (Nigeria)
Come chop  Come and eat (Nigeria)
Brah  Brother or pal (Hawaii)
Garans  guaranteed (Hawaii)

28. Creoles Pidgins learned as native language by next generation
Further development of grammar
Mainly in settlement colonies  passing on indigenous language was disadvantage
Loss of indigenous language (slaves) enabled further development of lingua franca
Still in use in former plantation settlement colonies
(Mufwene, 2002)

29. English based creoles List of languages : Afro-Seminole United States
Aluku
French Guiana
Anguillan Creole
Anguilla
Antiguan Creole
Antigua and Barbuda
Tok Pisin
Papua New Guinea
Barbadian Creole
Barbados
Bbislama
Vanuatu
Belizean Creole
Belize

30. French based creoles

31. Closure
‘Indigenous languages have been eroded not by the European languages but by the indigenous lingua franca.’ Mufwene, 2002
‘Language loss has been the most catastrophic in settlement colonies and new languages varieties have emerged additively in trade colonies.’ Mufwene, 2002

32. Sources
J. Brutt-Griffler, World English: A Study of its Development. (Accessed 4. Mai 2013)
Salikoko S. Mufwene, Language birth and death. (Accessed 4. Mai 2013)
Salikoko S. Mufwene, Colonisation, Globalisation, and the Future of Languages in the Twenty-first Century. (Accessed 4. Mai 2013)
D. Crystal, Language death. Cambridge University press. 68 – 76.
J. H. Cossar, Influence of Travel and Disease. (Accessed 5. Mai 2013)
Online sources:
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(Accessed 5. Mai 2013)

33. “A language disappears when its speakers disappear or when they shift to speaking another language – most often, a larger language used by a more powerful group.” (UNESCO Website)

34. English

35. Main threat to smaller, local languages
Third most spoken language in the world (native speakers)

37. Spread of English Colonisation
Possessions outside of the British Isles used as trading posts (the late 16th & early 18th centuries)
Peak: Largest empire in history and, for over a century, biggest global power. (Ferguson, 2004)
1922: British Empire  458 million people (Ferguson, 2004)
1/5 of total population
almost 1/4 of Earth’s total land area

38. Spread of English Colonization
The areas of the world that at one time were part of the British Empire. Current British Overseas Territories have their names underlined in red.

39. Spread of English Colonisation
After the British colonisation, dominant language in
United States
Australia
New Zealand

40. English in the world
3rd most spoken language in the world by native speakers
Most widely spoken language in the world
About one-fourth of the world's population can communicate to some degree in English.

41. Globalisation
Globalisation typically assumed to be a purely economic phenomenon.
Social exchanges
Cultural exchange
Political exchanges
Technological exchanges

42. According to Crystal (1997):
85% of the world's international organizations use English as their official language in transnational communication
About 85% of the world’s important film productions and markets use English
90% of the published academic articles in several academic fields are written in English

43. Factors for the spread of English in the 20th and 21th century
US as #1 economic power
Economic Globalisation
Technological advancements
Globalisation of the English language
Simplicity of the English language

44. Simplicity of English Uses Latin alphabet (simple and short)
No use of diacritics
Verb conjugation is very simple and easy
Almost no Inflections
Analytical language
Use of Periphrases
Receptive
Source: Torres,

45. Alternatives?
Best alternative would be Chinese if it were written in Latin alphabet
No conjugations or declension, but a very complicated script and tones.
Other examples:
Japanese: has very regular verbs but also a very complicated script
German has many more inflections than English
The major Romance languages, such as French, Spanish and Portuguese, have fewer inflections than most of languages, but their verb conjugation is very complicated
Russian has both complex verb conjugations and numerous noun declensions
Source: Torres,

46. “It may fairly be said that English is among the easiest languages to speak badly; but the most difficult to use well” C.L. Wren (1960)

47. English as lingua franca
Most English as lingua franca (ELF) interaction are between speakers that do not share the same first language  Contact language
Simplified English as new pidgin?
Globish
Global English, World English

48. World English
Seidlhofer (2005): “English is being shaped at least as much by its non-native speakers as by its native speakers. This has led to a somewhat paradoxical situation: on the one hand, for the majority of its users, English is a foreign language, and the vast majority of verbal exchanges in English do not involve any native speakers of the language at all. On the other hand, there is still a tendency for native speakers to be regarded as custodians over what is acceptable usage.”

50. Should we just let English “kill” other languages and all speak English?

51. Sources
Crystal, D English as a Global Language (Second edition). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ferguson, N. (2004). Empire, the rise and demise of the British world order and the lessons for global power. New York: Penguin Books.
Jenkins, J The Phonology of English as an International Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Mufwene, S.S Language birth and death. (Accessed 4. Mai 2013)
Phillipson, R English for Globalisation or for the World's People? International Review of Education. Vol. 47, No. 3/4, pp Globalisation, Language and Education. Springer.
Power, C Not the Queen's English ; Non-native English-speakers now outnumber native ones 3 to 1. And it's changing the way we communicate. Newsweek Magazine (International Ed.). New York
Seidlhofer, B English as a lingua franca. ELT J. 59(4): doi: /elt/cci064
Spichtinger, D The Spread of English and its Appropriation. Universität Wien
Treanor, Paul (1996). Making Europe multilingual” http//
Online Source:
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