Endangered languages Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Endangered languages - Essay Example There are numerous factors that researchers believe to playing a leading role towards the extinction of some languages. One of such factors is the aspect of parents pushing their children to learn languages that they believe are prestigious and â€Å"superior† to others, thus completely ignoring their local languages. It is a common trend especially in the developing countries whereby many people consider their local languages as inferior, thus get assimilated by hegemonies languages such as English. A significant number of people in the third world countries like Africa, particularly Kenya and Nigeria are straying away from their original traditions and native languages. In such countries, a large number of the young generation has shifted to different languages especially English. Some parents have decided not to teach their mother-tongue languages and instead teach them a second language because of many reasons related to social class and economic factors. The most unfortunate thing is that majority of them think that children can only learn to speak one language well, hence decide to dump their native languages (Dugan 10). They also go ahead and take their children to international schools that use the most dominant foreign languages. Natural and man-made disasters are also key factors that are leading to the extinction of some languages. Such disasters include war, famine, diseases, earthquakes, acts of genocide, and tsunami just to mention a few. For instance, the Rwandan Genocide almost wiped out the Tutsi community while Adolf Hitler’s regime almost eradicated the Jewish community. During the genocide, more than 6 million Jews were killed, which is a very big percentage considering the fact that this is not a large community. Migration outside the original territory is also a major attribute of extinction of languages. Sociolinguists argue that some languages