The Loss of Indigenous Languages

DOI: 10.33876/2311-0546/2022-2/100-112

Authors

  • Dorothy K. Billings Wichita State University, Anthropology Department

Keywords:

first language indigenous languages, Papua New Guinea, North and South America, migrants

Abstract

How can someone lose his or her first language? How can a language disappear, leaving no speakers left who speak it? Why are indigenous languages disappearing? This paper considers the various ways that languages are lost and what it means to the native speakers. I will look at examples in Papua New Guinea and North and South America. I will also note the dilemmas of the multitude of migrants
moving to new cultures and languages in the modern world.

Author Biography

  • Dorothy K. Billings, Wichita State University, Anthropology Department

    (1845 Fairmount st., 67260 Wichita, State Cansas, USA). E-mail: dorothy.billings@wichita.edu

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Published

06.06.2022

Issue

№ 2 - 2022

Section

American Anthropology