Common and Endangered Languages: Causes and Protection Methods

This essay delves into the critical issue of endangered languages, exploring the reasons behind their decline and the potential strategies for their preservation. The essay begins by defining the term "Endangered Language" and highlights the risk of extinction due to factors like the rise of dominant languages such as English. It uses India as a case study, noting the country's linguistic diversity and the shift away from local languages towards English and Hindi, particularly among educated urban populations. The causes discussed include lack of support for local languages, the influence of English-medium education, globalization, and the influx of foreign companies. The essay then proposes two key steps to protect endangered languages: establishing organizations to preserve documents and promote these languages and encouraging their use in daily life. The conclusion emphasizes the need for governmental and societal action to prevent the extinction of local languages, which is crucial for cultural preservation. The essay cites several academic sources to support its arguments.

Running head: COMMON AND ENDANGERED LANGIAGES
Common and Endangered Languages
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1COMMON AND ENDANGERED LANGUAGES
The term “Endangered Language” is referred to the types of languages which are at
risk of becoming extinct due to the fact that the people do not speak such languages anymore.
These languages have been popular once but owing to the rise of more modern languages like
English and other languages, people have stopped talking in these languages which is the
main reason for such languages facing the danger of being extinct. Therefore, it has truly
been said by the experts themselves that the endangered languages will become extinct unless
they aere protected and preserved by the human beings.
The purpose of this essay is to find out the cause of the disappearing language
and also find out two possible ways to protect such languages from becoming extinct.
As previously stated in the above paragraphs, a language itself becomes extinct once
the human beings stop speaking that language for a large number of years. For e.g. India is
known to be a culturally diverse country. There are a number of different cultures in the
country and each of these cultures have an unique language of their own. Thus is evidenced
by the fact that India has Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Odiya etc. languages which are
spoken by the people belonging to these cultures However, in the present scene, it has been
found that people of these cultures do not prefer speaking inn their mother tongue and would
often speak in a language which is foreign to them (Romaine, 2015). For e.g. it is seen that
the people in the country who are educated and live in metropolitan and urban areas would
prefer to speak more in English or Hindi rather than speaking in their mother tongue. There
are various causes for such choices of the people.
One of the most important causes why the local languages are becoming more and
more extinct is because of the lack of support of the Indians for these languages. Most people
do not prefer to speak in the local languages as they feel speaking in those languages would
make them feel embarrassed. Moreover, the majority of the people who live in the urban

2COMMON AND ENDANGERED LANGUAGES
areas and the metropolitan cities of India gets admitted into English medium schools and also
in Universities where speaking in English are must. As stated by Simone (2015), therefore,
they develop the habit of speaking in English which makes them feel more superior compared
to the rest of the countrymen who speaks in their own mother tongue.
Moreover, the globalization of the world as well as the coming of foreign companies
into the country and hiring Indians to do the work for them is another cause for them, to
speak in English and Hindi or in other Western languages rather than speaking in their or
local languages. This is becoming to be a big problem for the country itself as a large number
of the local languages in the country itself is becoming extinct or disappearing (Bell, 2013).
As stated by Amano (2014), it is therefore a major cause of concern for many countrymen
who feel that the local languages in the country should be preserved and protected by the
people of the country.
There are various ways in which India’s local languages can be prevented from
becoming extinct by the people of the country themselves. The first of these steps include
establishing certain organizations which will look after these languages and also protect
important documents as well as the novels and the short stories that were written in those
languages itself (Romaine, 2015). This will enable the other people of the country to learn
more about the languages, which will attract more attention to these languages from the
people themselves.
The second step, which the Government can take to protect the languages include
urging the people of the country to speak more in their local languages as well as read and
write in the same language. If the people of the country continues to follow these rules in the
country themselves, then the languages will be protected from becoming extinct due to the
causes of globalization in the country itself (Simone, 2013).

3COMMON AND ENDANGERED LANGUAGES
Thus, from the above statements, it can be concluded the local languages of the
countries is becoming one of the most important issues of the world. It is therefore necessary
for the people of the countries to make sure that the proper steps are being taken by the
Government to protect the local languages otherwise it can become extinct which can be a
huge problem for the country itself.

4COMMON AND ENDANGERED LANGUAGES
Reference List
Amano, T., Sandel, B., Eager, H., Bulteau, E., Svenning, J. C., Dalsgaard, B., ... &
Sutherland, W. J. (2014). Global distribution and drivers of language extinction risk.
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 281(1793), 20141574.
Bell, J. (2013). Language attitudes and language revival/survival. Journal of Multilingual
and Multicultural Development, 34(4), 399-410.
Jacquemet, M. (2016). Language in the Age of Globalization. The routledge handbook of
linguistic anthropology, 329-347.
Rivenburgh, N. K. (2013). Media framing of complex issues: The case of endangered
languages. Public Understanding of Science, 22(6), 704-717.
Romaine, S. (2015). The global extinction of languages and its consequences for cultural
diversity. In Cultural and Linguistic Minorities in the Russian Federation and the
European Union (pp. 31-46). Springer, Cham.
Simons, G. F., & Lewis, M. P. (2013). The world’s languages in crisis. Responses to
language endangerment: In honor of Mickey Noonan. New directions in language
documentation and language revitalization, 3, 20.