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> What population size and density do you need to keep a language alive? IMHO, the answer depends more on the lifestyle than on the number of speakers. As long

by mci 6y ago

> What population size and density do you need to keep a language alive? IMHO, the answer depends more on the lifestyle than on the number of speakers. As long as everyone lives in a homogenous community along with their grandparents and parents, the new generations learn the language. When people move to larger towns where the majority speaks a dominant language, their children at best speak the minority language at home while the grandchildren rarely acquire it at all, and its death is imminent. Anecdotal evidence follows. * Manx. In 1874: 16,200 speakers (30% of the population of the Isle of Man); in 1974: last native speaker dies. [0] * Belarusian. In 1999: 36.7% of Belarusian citizens spoke it at home; in 2009: 11.9%. [1] Remarkably, it is better preserved among the Belarusian minority in Poland which is concentrated in a few rural communes. * Lower Sorbian in Germany. In the 1880s: 70 thousand; in the 1990s: 7 thousand; around 2010: 2 thousand. Folk dances, costumes, and customs will outlast it like an empty shell outlasts its resident. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manx_language#Number_of_speakers_by_year https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manx_language#Number_of_speake... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belarusian_language https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belarusian_language

throw0101a 6y ago
> Remarkably, it is better preserved among the Belarusian minority in Poland which is concentrated in a few rural communes. This happens somewhat often: people emigrate from a country/region, and the culture becomes 'frozen' with-in them at that time, while in the source location there is still change and evolution. The large Italian diaspora in the New World often have dialects that died out from the Old Country because of mass communication: > He speaks a language particular to a small town of about 3,000 people in the region of Calabria in southern Italy. This tongue is closer to Latin than typical Italian because of the region’s late Romanization. Back home, younger generations like his don’t speak Santonofrese — named after the town of Sant’Onofrio —because it is seen as “lowbrow.” He says that thanks to Toronto’s large Italian community, there may be several endangered languages and dialects like his preserved in the city as people continue to speak them with their family. * https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/09/30/linguist-documents-dying-languages-still-spoken-in-toronto.html https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/09/30/linguist-documen... * https://archive.is/hRtGY https://archive.is/hRtGY See also Endangered Languages Alliance (Toronto): * https://elalliance.com https://elalliance.com

by mci 6y ago

throw0101a 6y ago

> Remarkably, it is better preserved among the Belarusian minority in Poland which is concentrated in a few rural communes. This happens somewhat often: people emigrate from a country/region, and the culture becomes 'frozen' with-in them at that time, while in the source location there is still change and evolution. The large Italian diaspora in the New World often have dialects that died out from the Old Country because of mass communication: > He speaks a language particular to a small town of about 3,000 people in the region of Calabria in southern Italy. This tongue is closer to Latin than typical Italian because of the region’s late Romanization. Back home, younger generations like his don’t speak Santonofrese — named after the town of Sant’Onofrio —because it is seen as “lowbrow.” He says that thanks to Toronto’s large Italian community, there may be several endangered languages and dialects like his preserved in the city as people continue to speak them with their family. * https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/09/30/linguist-documents-dying-languages-still-spoken-in-toronto.html https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/09/30/linguist-documen... * https://archive.is/hRtGY https://archive.is/hRtGY See also Endangered Languages Alliance (Toronto): * https://elalliance.com https://elalliance.com