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An extinct language (also called a dead language) is a language which no longer has any native speakers. Normally this occurs when a language undergoes language death while being directly replaced by a different one, for example, Coptic, which was replaced by Arabic, and many Native American languages, which were replaced by English, French, Spanish, or Portuguese.
Language extinction also occurs when a language undergoes a rapid evolution or assimilation until it eventually gives birth to an offspring, yet, dissimilar language (or family of languages). Such is the case with Latin; an extinct (dead) language but the parent of the modern Romance languages. Likewise Sanskrit is the parent of the modern Indo-Aryan languages and Old English is the parent of Modern English. There are apparently children using Sanskrit as a revived language in Mathoor village (India) *.
In some cases, an extinct language remains in use for scientific, legal, or ecclesiastical functions. Sanskrit, Latin, Old Church Slavonic, Avestan, Coptic, Old Tibetan and Ge'ez are among the many extinct languages used as sacred languages.
A language that does have living native speakers is called a living language. Ethnologue claims there are 6,912 living languages known.*
Hebrew is an example of a formerly extinct liturgical language that has been revived to become a living language. There have been other attempts at language revival (such as Manx and Cornish), but the success of these attempts has been subject to debate, as it is not clear they will ever become the common native language of a community of speakers.
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Recently extinct languages
With last known speaker and/or date of death (Some debate that a language may already be dead/extinct due to mutations by the time that only one speaker remains):
Adai: (late 19th century)
Alsea: John Albert (1942)
Chitimacha: Benjamin Paul (1934) & Delphine Ducloux (1940)
Comecrudo: recorded from children (Andrade, Emiterio, Joaquin, & others) of last speakers in 1886
Garza: last recorded in 1828
Hanis: Martha Johnson (1972)
Miluk: Annie Miner Peterson (1939)
Cotoname: last recorded from Santos Cavázos and Emiterio in 1886
Esselen: report of few speakers left in 1833, extinct before end 19th century
Galice dialect: Hoxie Simmons (1963)
Ahantchuyuk, Luckimute, Mary's River, and Lower McKenzie River dialects: last speakers were about 6 persons who were all over 60 in 1937
Santiam dialect: (ca. 1950s)
Tualatin dialect: Louis Kenoyer (1937)
Yamhill dialect: Louisa Selky (1915)
Yonkalla: last recorded in 1937 from Laura Blackery Albertson who only partly remembered it.
Kitanemuk (an Uto-Aztecan language): Marcelino Rivera, Isabella Gonzales, Refugia Duran (last recorded 1937)
Clatskanie dialect: father of Willie Andrew (ca. 1870)
Kwalhioqua dialect: mother of Lizzie Johnson (1910)
Mahican: last spoken in Wisconsin (ca. 1930s)
Bear River dialect: material from last elderly speaker recorded (ca. 1929)
Mattole dialect: material recorded (ca. 1930)
Munichi: Victoria Huancho Icahuate (late 1990s)
Natchez: Watt Sam & Nancy Raven (early 1930s)
Shasta: 3 elderly speakers in 1980, extinct by 1990
Takelma: Molly Orton (or Molly Orcutt) & Willie Simmons (both not fully fluent) last recorded in 1934
Tataviam (an Uto-Aztecan language): Juan José Fustero who remembered only a few words of his grandparents' language (recorded 1913)
Tunica: Sesostrie Youchigant (ca. mid 20th century)
all dialects of Upper Chinook (a Chinookan language) are extinct, except for the Wasco-Wishram dialect. The Clackamas dialect began extinct in the 1930s, other dialects have little documentation. (The Wasco-Wishram dialect is still spoken by 6 elders.)
Wiyot: Della Prince (1962)
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See also
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Bibliography
Adelaar, Willem F. H.; & Muysken, Pieter C. (2004). The languages of the Andes. Cambridge language surveys. Cambridge University Press.
Brenzinger, Matthias (ed.) (1992) Language Death: Factual and Theoretical Explorations with Special Reference to East Africa. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Campbell, Lyle; & Mithun, Marianne (Eds.). (1979). The languages of native America: Historical and comparative assessment. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Dorian, Nancy C. (1978). Fate of morphological complexity in language death: Evidence from East Sutherland Gaelic. Language, 54 (3), 590-609.
Dorian, Nancy C. (1981). Language death: The life cycle of a Scottish Gaelic dialect. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Dressler, Wolfgand & Wodak-Leodolter, Ruth (eds.) (1977) Language death (International Journal of the Sociology of Language vol. 12). The Hague: Mouton.
Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (Ed.). (2005). Ethnologue: Languages of the world (15th ed.). Dallas, TX: SIL International. ISBN 1-55671-159-X. (Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com).
Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.
Mohan, Peggy; & Zador, Paul. (1986). Discontinuity in a life cycle: The death of Trinidad Bhojpuri. Language, 62 (2), 291-319.
Sasse, Hans-Jürgen (1992) 'Theory of language death', in Brenzinger (ed.) Language Death, pp. 7–30.
Schilling-Estes, Natalie; & Wolfram, Walt. (1999). Alternative models of dialect death: Dissipation vs. concentration. Language, 75 (3), 486-521.
Sebeok, Thomas A. (Ed.). (1973). Linguistics in North America (parts 1 & 2). Current trends in linguistics (Vol. 10). The Hauge: Mouton. (Reprinted as Sebeok 1976).
Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove. (2000). Linguistic genocide in education or worldwide diversity and human rights? Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 0-8058-3468-0.
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