Sources
Help build the largest human-edited directory on the web.
Submit a site - Become an editor
Wikipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Are you an expert in this subject? Join the discussion and share your knowledge at Wikipedia.org.
Moribund language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A language is usually considered moribund (literally, 'dying') when it is no longer the language of the community, and is no longer learned by children, so that without massive intervention it will likely become extinct when the last of its current speakers dies. A language can have thousands of speakers and still be moribund, if language learning ceased abruptly in a large community. On the other hand, a language may have only a few dozen speakers and be considered vibrant, if it is integral to a community that small.
Particular words of a language can also be considered moribund if they are no longer being used by the community. Clear examples of this are the rural related vocabulary, which is no longer used in many places due to the abandon of the rural areas, or the names of very specific places which are only known by the locals (such as La Timba by the inhabitants of the Covadonga neighbourhood in the Catalonian city of Sabadell).
 |
This linguistics article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |