extinct language
No native speakers
An extinct language is one that no longer has any native speakers.
Languages die when their last fluent speakers pass away without transmitting the language to younger generations: Latin is an extinct language, though its descendants—Italian, Spanish, French—thrive.
Some extinct languages, like Sanskrit or Ancient Greek, survive in written records and scholarly study; others vanish entirely.
Earliest known civilization
- AkkadianAncient Semitic Mesopotamian language
- SanskritAncient Indo-Aryan language
- Old NorseMedieval Scandinavian language
- AramaicAncient Semitic language
Coptic · Classical Greek · Hittite · Etruscan · Phoenician · Old Church Slavonic · Vedic · Pali
Study of historical texts
- cognatesWords from common origin
- corpusAssembled written works
- attestationFormal declaration confirming truth
- fragmentaryConsisting of incomplete parts
decipherment · epigraphy · ancient texts · paleography · unclassified · undeciphered
Rendered unable to speak
- forgottenNo longer recalled
- dormantInactive but capable
- obsoleteNo longer in use
- defunctNo longer existing
disused · abandoned · eradicated · lapsed · vanished · unspoken · undocumented · moribund
Custom passed through generations
- identityWho someone is
- ancestryFamily line of descent
- oral historyRecorded interviews about the past
- mythologyBody of traditional tales
cultural memory · folklore · legacy · artifacts · inscriptions · manuscripts · sacred texts · indigenous knowledge
Restoring vigor or vitality
- reconstructionRebuilding after destruction
- documentationWritten proof or instructions
- preservationMaintaining something's condition
- relearningGaining back lost knowledge
reclamation · Cornish · Manx · archival recordings · educational programs · digital archives · reawakening
Sumerian
Earliest known civilization
- AkkadianAncient Semitic Mesopotamian language
- SanskritAncient Indo-Aryan language
- Old NorseMedieval Scandinavian language
Aramaic · Coptic · Classical Greek · Hittite · Etruscan · Phoenician · Old Church Slavonic · Vedic · Pali
philology
Study of historical texts
- cognatesWords from common origin
- corpusAssembled written works
- attestationFormal declaration confirming truth
fragmentary · decipherment · epigraphy · ancient texts · paleography · unclassified · undeciphered
silenced
Rendered unable to speak
defunct · disused · abandoned · eradicated · lapsed · vanished · unspoken · undocumented · moribund · erasure
tradition
Custom passed through generations
- identityWho someone is
- ancestryFamily line of descent
- oral historyRecorded interviews about the past
mythology · cultural memory · folklore · legacy · artifacts · inscriptions · manuscripts · sacred texts · indigenous knowledge · decipherment
revitalization
Restoring vigor or vitality
- reconstructionRebuilding after destruction
- documentationWritten proof or instructions
- preservationMaintaining something's condition
relearning · reclamation · Cornish · Manx · archival recordings · educational programs · digital archives · reawakening
- endangered languagesrevitalization, UNESCO
- language losscritically endangered
- language termsgrammar, word, vocabulary, syntax, synonym
- historical linguisticscognates, Indo-European, Grimm's Law, Proto-Germanic, word origins
extinct languageliving language
Language still naturally spoken
spoken language · vibrant language · native language · mother tongue · vernacular
language, extinct, languages, extinction, extinguishment, extinguishable, extinct languages