I have been finding weblogs about language revitalization strategies and examples of where it is currently happening.  I decided to look for information explores the opposite side of this issue, language extinction.  This website is an article about “language death.”  It takes on a pessimistic view of current endangered languages around the world.

“John McWhorter estimates the 6,000 languages spoken today will dwindle to only 600 next century.”  McWhorter argues despite language revitalization strategies there is no public need for Indigenous language as the dominant languages are used day to day.  He says that most Indigenous languages currently spoken are Indigenous people who are isolated and marginalized and this isolation is caused by their inability to communicate in mainstream language.  He goes on to say that if these Indigenous cultures want a better life for their future they need to convert to speaking a dominant language, the need to speak their own language will become irrelevant and eventually die out.

McWhorter thinks that language is unique to each culture, and is important to preserve but he takes the pessimistic view, Indigenous languages will not stay around much longer.  He thinks that recording and documenting the language for future records is important.  However, the efforts to revitalize language will cease just as “ice melts to water”.

http://io9.com/5442321/90-percent-of-languages-will-be-extinct-next-century-+-and-thats-good