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An estimated of 7,000 languages are being spoken around the world, but that number is expected to shrink rapidly in the future (Calls, T:2014). A US linguist stunned the academic world by predicting that by the year 2100, 90% of the world's languages would have ceased to exist. (Calls, T: 2014). When a language becomes extinct, the culture in which it lived is lost too and somewhat becomes extinct as well (Calls, T:2014). When cultures evolve, people find that the groups often naturally shift their language use (Calls, T:2014). There is an increasing number of groups and communities that are giving up their language by their own choice, says Claude Hagege as cited in BBC (Calls, T:2014). The people believe that their languages have no future and that their children will not acquire a professional qualification if they teach them the tribal languages (Calls, T:2014). Nothing can be done about the abandonment of a language to the will of a population (Hagege, C) as cited in Calls,
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Endangered languages is a matter of degree (Tsunoda, T:2006). They should be saved because they have a part of community identity and affiliation which can be the essence continuity and ethnocultural creativity in a community (Fishman, J:1991). If the children start preferring the dominant language that means that the language is ‘potentially endangered’ (Janse, M; Tol, S:2003). If the youngest speakers are young adults and there are no or very few child speakers, then the language is ‘endangered’. A language is considered ‘seriously endangered’ if the youngest speakers are middle or past middle age (Janse, M; Tol, S:2003). For example: Hebrew was an endangered language and was at the verge of language death at the beginning of the 19th century. It existed as a language written in school, but there was no way to say "I love you" and "pass the salt" - the French linguists' criteria for detecting life, but with the strong will of Israeli Jews the language was brought back into everyday use. And now it is undeniably a living breathing language once more again (Hagege, C) as cited in (Calls,
Endangered languages is a matter of degree (Tsunoda, T:2006). They should be saved because they have a part of community identity and affiliation which can be the essence continuity and ethnocultural creativity in a community (Fishman, J:1991). If the children start preferring the dominant language that means that the language is ‘potentially endangered’ (Janse, M; Tol, S:2003). If the youngest speakers are young adults and there are no or very few child speakers, then the language is ‘endangered’. A language is considered ‘seriously endangered’ if the youngest speakers are middle or past middle age (Janse, M; Tol, S:2003). For example: Hebrew was an endangered language and was at the verge of language death at the beginning of the 19th century. It existed as a language written in school, but there was no way to say "I love you" and "pass the salt" - the French linguists' criteria for detecting life, but with the strong will of Israeli Jews the language was brought back into everyday use. And now it is undeniably a living breathing language once more again (Hagege, C) as cited in (Calls,