Extinct language

A piece of Eteocypriot writing from Amathous, Cyprus, dated c. 500–300 BCE, on display at Ashmolean Museum

An extinct language or dead language is a language with no living native speakers. A heritage language, or sometimes a dormant language, is an extinct language that still serves as a symbol of ethnic identity to an ethnic group; these languages are often undergoing a process of revitalisation. Languages that have first-language speakers are known as living languages.

Languages have typically become extinct as a result of the process of cultural assimilation leading to language shift, and the gradual abandonment of a native language in favor of a foreign lingua franca.

As of the 2000s, a total of roughly 7,000 natively spoken languages existed worldwide. Most of these are minor languages in danger of extinction; one estimate published in 2004 expected that some 90% of the languages spoken at that time will have become extinct by 2050.

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