Predictions

A. Taught language versus spoken language. As times goes on, many languages will survive more as second languages than as first ones. It is more common than educated Westerners generally know for people to speak a language or two decently if not perfectly, having learned a new language for trade or work after childhood. My sense from the Irish, Welsh, Breton, Maori, and Hawaiian movements is that the languages are unlikely to be passed on to children again in enough households to be significant, but that the languages nevertheless can live as “taught” languages, rather as many Americans have a decent if not native-level proficiency in Spanish.

B. Documented languages. A great many languages, however, will only survive on paper. The chances of reviving most of the Native American or Australian Aboriginal languages would seem nonexistent, which makes it imperative that they at least be described and recorded for posterity.

In this series, you have seen that linguistics is not about blackboard grammar or translation or learning to speak a lot of languages. If the topics I have taken you through have been interesting and your life circumstances allow it, you might consider helping to preserve a dying language in some way. You could contact the linguistics department nearest to you for advice.