Extinct Leid

Extinct leids mey be contrastit wi deid leids, that arnae spoken bi onybody ony mair as his or her main leids.

Normally the transition frae a deid tae a extinct leid occurs whan a leid drees leid daith while bein directly replaced bi a different ane. For insample, Native American leids wur replaced bi Inglis, French, Portuguese, or Spaingie as a result o colonization. The Coptic leid, replaced bi Arabic in its native Egyp, wis ance thocht tae be extinct.

Leid extinction mey occur whan a leid evolves intae a new leid or faimily o leids. An insample o this wis Auld Inglis, a forerunner o Modren Inglis.

Bi contrast tae an extinct language that disnae hae ony speakers ony mair, a deid leid mey remain in uise for scienteefic, legal, or ecclesiastical functions. Old Church Slavonic, Avestan, Coptic, Biblical Hebrew, Ge'ez, Latin, an Sanskrit ar amang the mony dead leids uised as sacred leids.

Alternatively, a leid is said tae be extinct gif, thoch it is kent for haein been spoken bi fowk in the past, modren scholarship cannae reconstruct it tae the pynt that it is possible tae write in it or owerset intae it wi confidence (say, a semple dialogue or a short tale written in a modren leid); whaurby a leid is referred tae as dead, but no extinct, gif fowk ken eneuch o it at present tae allou sic routine uise, thoch it haes nae modren speakers. Bi thir definitions Proto-Indo-European (anerly conjectural reconstructions o lexicon an grammar o it exist) is an extinct leid, an Clessical Laitin an Auld Tupi are deid, but nae extinct leids.

A leid that haes livin native speakers is cried a modren language. Ethnologue records 6,912 livin leids kent.

Hebrew is an insample o a naur extinct spoken leid (bi the first definition 'boon) that became a lingua franca an a liturgical leid that haes been revived tae acome a livin spoken leid. Thare ither attempts at leid revival. For insample, young schuil bairns uise Sanskrit in revived leid in Mathoor veelage (Indie). In general, the success o thir attemps haes been subject tae debate, as it isnae clear thay will ever acome the common native leid o a commonty o speakers.

It is believed that 90% o the circa 7,000 leids currently spoken in the warld will hae acome extinct bi 2050, as the warld's leid seestem haes reached a crisis an is dramatically restructurin.