Whole languages are disappearing from the face of the Earth permanently, leaving behind far fewer fossils than extinct lifeforms. Since at least the 1990s, the rate of “language death” has been estimated to reach 90% within a century*– that’s the extinction of entire languages. If it is possible for entire languages to die, shouldn’t we also be attentive to the life cycles of individual words within surviving languages?
* source: Krauss, M. (1992) The world’s languages in crisis, Language, Vol. 68, No. 1, Univ. Alaska, Fairbanks, p. 7
* source: Krauss, M. (1992) The world’s languages in crisis, Language, Vol. 68, No. 1, Univ. Alaska, Fairbanks, p. 7
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