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That blending largely occurred in Latin America, but languages rarely survive such things both in the Americas and generally throughout history. Communication i

That blending largely occurred in Latin America, but languages rarely survive such things both in the Americas and generally throughout history. Communication is important enough that the language of whichever group is technologically superior becomes the lingua franca, and the other slowly disappears.

samatman 5y ago
That undersells the situation in Latin America, to put it mildly. There are almost two million native speakers of Nahuatl languages in Mexico, six million Maya speakers in Central America, 25% of Peru speaks Quechua at home (around ten million in total throughout the Andes). Guaraní has official status in Paraguay, half of the population is monolingual in it, substantial numbers of people of partial or complete European ancestry speak it every day, we're talking about 6.5 million people. As a point of comparison, there are 2.9 million registered Native Americans, and 5.2 million people who check that box, sometimes along with others, on the latest census.
- jariel 5y ago
  You've basically proved the point of the commenter you are responding to. By your very own evidence - Spanish and Portuguese utterly dominate Central and South America. There are 650M people there, if ~10% of the population speaks another language, that helps prove the case of 'language from more advanced languages win'. Even where there is relative parity, systems definitely favour the language of the more powerful entity. All over Europe there are 'niche languages' dying out, which is sad, but it's materially the case. Go to Nice, France, and the street signs are in 'Nicoise' - not French. In Monaco if you listen carefully you can hear 'Monegasque'. The decline of those languages is hinted at in the fact my spellchecker doesn't even recognize those words, unfortunately.
- Grieving 5y ago
  I'm not sure what you mean? You named a handful of languages that have survived, most of which are still in decline even if they still have substantial numbers of active speakers. The only one that seems possibly positioned to 'win out' in the long run is Guaraní, and even in Paraguay Spanish is steadily making inroads.
Grieving 5y ago
I'm being downvoted here, I think mainly because frank admission of facts is considered mean. For reference, I'm speaking as a member of a tiny ethnic group that survived well into the 20th century, including a period of strong repression. What we couldn't survive was modernization. The need for work led to embracing the English language as the only way forward, and mass media, mobility, and exogamy have all contributed to extremely rapid cultural disintegration. This is the way the world works.

samatman 5y ago

That undersells the situation in Latin America, to put it mildly. There are almost two million native speakers of Nahuatl languages in Mexico, six million Maya speakers in Central America, 25% of Peru speaks Quechua at home (around ten million in total throughout the Andes). Guaraní has official status in Paraguay, half of the population is monolingual in it, substantial numbers of people of partial or complete European ancestry speak it every day, we're talking about 6.5 million people. As a point of comparison, there are 2.9 million registered Native Americans, and 5.2 million people who check that box, sometimes along with others, on the latest census.

jariel 5y ago
You've basically proved the point of the commenter you are responding to. By your very own evidence - Spanish and Portuguese utterly dominate Central and South America. There are 650M people there, if ~10% of the population speaks another language, that helps prove the case of 'language from more advanced languages win'. Even where there is relative parity, systems definitely favour the language of the more powerful entity. All over Europe there are 'niche languages' dying out, which is sad, but it's materially the case. Go to Nice, France, and the street signs are in 'Nicoise' - not French. In Monaco if you listen carefully you can hear 'Monegasque'. The decline of those languages is hinted at in the fact my spellchecker doesn't even recognize those words, unfortunately.
Grieving 5y ago
I'm not sure what you mean? You named a handful of languages that have survived, most of which are still in decline even if they still have substantial numbers of active speakers. The only one that seems possibly positioned to 'win out' in the long run is Guaraní, and even in Paraguay Spanish is steadily making inroads.

Grieving 5y ago

I'm being downvoted here, I think mainly because frank admission of facts is considered mean. For reference, I'm speaking as a member of a tiny ethnic group that survived well into the 20th century, including a period of strong repression. What we couldn't survive was modernization. The need for work led to embracing the English language as the only way forward, and mass media, mobility, and exogamy have all contributed to extremely rapid cultural disintegration. This is the way the world works.