In linguistics, language death (also language extinction, linguistic extinction or linguicide, and rarely also glottophagy) 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. Language death may affect any language idiom, including dialects and languages.
Language death should not be confused with language attrition (also called language loss) which describes the loss of proficiency in a language at the individual level.
Read more about Language Death: Types of Language Death, Consequences On Grammar, Language Revitalization, Dead Languages and Normal Language Change, Measuring Language Vitality
Famous quotes containing the word language:
“the communication
Of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)