MORIBUND LANGUAGE

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 die. 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 those speakers constitute a community in which the language is actively used.^[1]
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 abandonment of the rural areas, or the names of very specific places which are only known by the locals. Similarly, words or varieties of a language can continue in set phrases such as greetings, maxims, or prayers (for example, some contemporary English-speaking Christians say the Lord's prayer in a form of early modern English, even though most modern English speakers are unable to use thou/thee/thy grammatically outside of set phrases^[2]); however, such words are typically restricted to these uses.
An alternative outcome can occur for languages with ritual status, such as Latin, Biblical Hebrew, Sanskrit, or Classical Arabic, which are learned to some degree by some members of a religious or scholarly community, and may be used as a secondary form of communication in scholarly or ritual contexts, or during meetings of persons with different native languages who are reasonably competent in the ritual/scholarly language. Such sacred, liturgical, or scholarly languages are usually minimally productive of words for new concepts, etc., if at all, and are generally not used as languages of ordinary communication. A partial exception is New Latin (in its forms of Botanical Latin and Zoological Latin), which has been used to generate official names of species and to write official descriptions of the species for use by taxonomists.^[3][4]
Sometimes there are attempts to revive extinct or moribund languages, as part of a nationalist or religious movement. Linguists and other scholars debate the extent to which "revival" accurately describes the process. Adopting a language from the pre-modern/pre-industrial period as a language of daily use requires creating new words for new concepts (e.g., computer, television, hamburger, socialism, global warming). Pronunciation and aspects of grammar may also be modified to fit adult speakers' native language(s) more closely. Revived languages, if successful, are therefore usually reinvented to some degree as much as revived.^[5]

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References

See also

References

1. Crystal, David (2000) ''Language Death''. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
2. McCrum, Robert, William Cran, and Robert MacNeil (1986) ''The story of English''. New York: Viking.
3. ''International Code of Botanical Nomenclature'' (St Louis Code). Regnum Vegetabile 138. Koeltz Scientific Books, Königstein. ISBN 3-904144-22-7
4. Stearn, William (2004) ''Botanical Latin'', 5th ed. Portland, OR: Timber Press
5. Sumathi Ramaswamy (1999) "Sanskrit for the Nation," ''Modern Asian Studies'', 33: 339-381

See also

★ Language death

★ Language revival

★ Endangered language

★ Sacred language