Is Irish the only language that's declining? (1 Viewer)

[Beanstalk]

I don't want to get into a whole debate about whether the irish language is on its way out, or alive and well...just wondering if any of ye know about other native tongues under threat by the prevalence of English.

Seems like we never hear about English threatening Norweigan, Dutch, Polish etc (probably because we don't live there, duh)...I wonder are they worried that their language is gonna fade out...I suppose we had English forced upon us a bit earlier in history than them, but surely its inevitable that as the generations continue, their native languages will decline too.

Or maybe it's not inevitable? What's the most important factor in sustaining a language? Its usage in...business? The Arts? TV? Internet?


Globalisation, wha?

 

[Lefty Frizzell]

I dunno, have you seen the irish wikipedia? Vicipéid.

http://ga.wikipedia.org/wiki/Príomhleathanach

 

[broken arm]

Americas

• Eyak, Alaska, 1 speaker
• Michif, spoken by fewer than 1,000 people in western Canada
• indigenous languages of Canada:
  • Abenaki, 10 speakers
  • Beaver, 300 speakers
  • Cayuga, 360 speakers
  • Delaware (Munsee), fewer than 10 speakers
  • Han, few speakers
  • Hare, 600 speakers
  • Onandaga, fewer than 100 speakers
  • Oneida, 200 speakers
  • Potawatomi, 100 speakers
  • Sarcee, 10 speakers
  • Seneca, 25 speakers
• indigenous languages of the USA:

Asia

• Ainu, Northern Japan, 15 speakers
• Aramaic, Lebanon, Kurdistan
• Chukchi, Siberia, circa 10,400 speakers (2001)
• Udmurt, various parts of Russia
• Northern indigenous peoples of Russia

Australia

• all aboriginal languages

Europe

• European Union
  • Alsatian (France) very fast decline
  • Aragonese (Spain) very fast decline
  • Aromanian (Greece) very fast decline
  • Basque (France) very fast decline
  • Breton (France) very fast decline
  • Catalan (France) very fast decline
  • Corsican (France) very fast decline
  • South Italian Greek (Italy) very fast decline
  • Italkian (Judeo-Italian) (Italy) probably extinct
  • Molise Slavic (Italy) very fast decline
  • Occitan (France) very fast decline
  • Sami languages, (Scandinavia), some having fewer than 100 speakers
  • Scottish Gaelic (United Kingdom) very fast decline
  • Lower Sorbian, (Germany) very fast decline
  • West Flemish (France) very fast decline
  • Yevanic (Judeo-Greek) (Greece) probably extinct
• Outside of the European Union
  • Belarusian, very low usage in Belarus
  • Istro-romanian, Istria Croatia, 500 speakers
  • Krimchak (Judeo-Crimean Tatar)
  • Livonian, Estonia, 35 speakers
  • Mordvin (Russia), steady decline
    • Erzya language
    • Moksha language
  • Votian, Russia, 50 speakers

 

[billygannon]

Klingon
COBOL

 

[nofriendo]

• • Beaver, 300 speakers

Wouldnt mind being able to speak beaver....here lads build us a dam there!

COBOL

Never mention that word ever again!!

 

[ratmonkey]

I dunno, have you seen the irish wikipedia? Vicipéid.

http://ga.wikipedia.org/wiki/Príomhleathanach

Nil aon "v" sa teanga. Cad é an sceal leis sin?

 

[Beanstalk]

Americas

• Eyak, Alaska, 1 speaker
• Michif, spoken by fewer than 1,000 people in western Canada
• indigenous languages of Canada:
  • Abenaki, 10 speakers
  • Beaver, 300 speakers
  • Cayuga, 360 speakers
  • Delaware (Munsee), fewer than 10 speakers

............

Jayney, thats answered my question anyway!
Cheers brokenarmpedia. .|..|

 

[broken arm]

Jayney, thats answered my question anyway!
Cheers brokenarmpedia. .|..|

i'm sure there's more/better info. but that was top of the pile.

 

[Theseus Mock]

esperanto.

 

[Super Dexta]

languages are dying out at a fierce rate. according to some stats, 90% of languages currently spoken are expected to die out in the next decade or so. hey ho.

 

[Osama Van Halen]

TA ALLAHQUAANNNDO!!! AGUT.

 

[SONYMEGADRIVE]

[*]European Union

• Alsatian (France) very fast decline

• 
  
  god, that's ruff

 

[Raudi Raus Schinkel]

I think English is an important language for business, yeah, I use it lot on business trips.

 

[evil bandit]

[/list]
[/list]Wouldnt mind being able to speak beaver....here lads build us a dam there!

If I could speak beaver I wouldn't be saying that

You know what I'm saying lads wha wha wha





A fine

 

[quasiquasi]

languages are dying out at a fierce rate. according to some stats, 90% of languages currently spoken are expected to die out in the next decade or so. hey ho.

Do you have a source for that? The numbers I had picked up somewhere were 6000 languages in the world, of which half are expected to survive the next 100 years...I think.

They're probably both possible scenarios, depending on how quickly language death is accelerating.

 

[Super Dexta]

Do you have a source for that? The numbers I had picked up somewhere were 6000 languages in the world, of which half are expected to survive the next 100 years...I think.

They're probably both possible scenarios, depending on how quickly language death is accelerating.

David Crystal sez:

By some counts, only 600 of the 6,000 or so languages in the world are 'safe' from the threat of extinction.

is that the same thing? I haven't got a maths head on me today.

something so speculative is surely likely to have widely varying estimates though.

next few decades, according to some yokes from cornell:

The Tower of Babel might get built after all. While thousands of different languages are spoken around the world, 90 percent of them are dying and are expected to vanish in the next few decades.

 

[pad]

Nil aon "v" sa teanga. Cad é an sceal leis sin?

i was just thinking the same thing...

 

[pad]

god, that's ruff

oh andy. you came, and you gave without taking...

 

[classic seanc]

What about the language of love?

 

[Scientician 0.8]

The letters j, k, q, v, w, x, y and z do not occur in native Irish words, but do appear in some English loanwords, for example jab (job) and veain (van).
From here.