Endangered language

An endangered language is one whose speakers are declining or shifting to another language, putting its continued transmission and use at risk.

Intergenerational language transmission: The passing of a language from one generation to the next through everyday communication. When children stop acquiring the language at home, its speaker base cannot renew itself.
Language: A socially shared system of communication built from structured sounds, signs, or other symbols. Endangerment concerns the continued use of a language system, not merely a shrinking vocabulary.
UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger: A UNESCO resource that maps languages classified by their degree of endangerment. Its entries make language endangerment visible across regions and support comparative assessment.
Linguistic diversity: The variety of languages and linguistic structures found among the world’s communities. Each language lost reduces the range of human linguistic systems still in use.
Eyak language: A Na-Dene language of Alaska whose last fluent first-language speaker, Marie Smith Jones, died in 2008. Eyak illustrates the loss of fluent speakers alongside continuing documentation and revitalization work.
Language shift: The gradual replacement of one language by another within a community or across generations. A community may shift toward a dominant language even while older speakers retain the ancestral one.
Speech community: A group connected by shared norms for using one or more languages or varieties. A language’s prospects depend on how its community uses and transmits it.
Language nest: An early-childhood immersion program in which fluent speakers teach a language through daily activities. Language nests target intergenerational transmission by making the language part of young children’s lives.
Traditional ecological knowledge: Knowledge of local environments developed and transmitted within communities over generations. Language loss can disrupt the words and practices through which place-based knowledge is conveyed.
Ainu language: An Indigenous language of northern Japan and nearby regions with very few fluent speakers. Ainu shows how suppression and language shift can sharply weaken transmission across generations.

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