Persuasive Speech About Endangered Languages

In this essay, I will try to explore ‘endangered languages’ and the causes for language endangerment as well as the various steps involved in saving and stabilizing endangered languages.

An endangered language is a language that is at risk of falling out of use as its speakers die out or shift to speaking another language. Language loss occurs when the language has no more native speakers, and becomes a "dead language". If eventually no one speaks the language at all, it becomes an "extinct language". Although the exact number of languages in the world is not known, it is estimated that the total number of languages in the world is close to 6000. The top 20 languages, spoken by more than 50 million speakers each, are spoken by 50% of the world 's population, whereas many of the other languages are spoken by small communities, most of them with fewer than 10,000 speakers. By some estimates, 80% of the world 's languages may vanish within the next century.

Extinction of a language is a gradual process. It might take several decades for a language to become extinct. However, the extinction can be sudden as well. For example, Scots Gaelic was spoken on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, until the 1940s, but by the 1970s the language was no longer being learned by children. On the other hand, there are certain languages that have declined much more slowly. Languages such as Onondaga and Mohawk, spoken in upstate New York and adjacent parts of Canada, have been declining for over