An
endangered language
An endangered language or moribund language is a language that is at risk of disappearing as its speakers die out or shift to speaking other languages. Language loss occurs when the language has no more native speakers and becomes a "dead langu ...
is a
language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...
that it is at risk of falling out of use, generally because it has few surviving speakers. If it loses all of its native speakers, it becomes an
extinct language
An extinct language is a language that no longer has any speakers, especially if the language has no living descendants. In contrast, a dead language is one that is no longer the native language of any community, even if it is still in use, li ...
.
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
defines
four levels of language endangerment between "safe" (not endangered) and "extinct":
* Vulnerable
* Definitely endangered
* Severely endangered
* Critically endangered
Languages
See also
*
Lists of endangered languages
Lists of endangered languages are mainly based on the definitions used by UNESCO. In order to be listed, a language must be classified as "endangered" in a cited academic source. Researchers have concluded that in less than one hundred years, alm ...
*
Red Book of Endangered Languages
The UNESCO ''Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger'' is an online publication containing a comprehensive list of the world's endangered languages. It originally replaced the ''Red Book of Endangered Languages'' as a title in print after a ...
*
Affirmative action in China
In the People's Republic of China, the government had instated affirmative action policies for ethnic minorities called Youhui zhengce () or Shaoshu minzu jiafen ( in College Entrance Examination) when it began in 1949 and still had impact unti ...
References
{{Reflist
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
Human rights of ethnic minorities in China
Separatism in China