Extinctions: Language Death, Intangible Cultural Heritage, and Early 21st-Century Renewal Efforts
Authors: O'Neill Sean 
Published: February 2025

The world’s languages have been dying off at an astonishing rate over the course of the past several centuries, at a pace unmatched in the history of humanity. Experts have been sounding the warning for decades, and, while there is still a fighting chance to reverse this situation, the stakes are high when it comes to preserving the world’s intangible cultural heritage, which is often wrapped up in the intimate details of spoken language. As languages pass into extinction, so too does much of the received wisdom encapsulated in the stories, songs, and folklore of everyday living. Thus, when it comes to “language death,” there are often many non-linguistic casualties along the way—going far beyond structural concerns, like documenting the grammar or vocabulary, right to the heart of the cultural legacies passed down over the generations. Yet this sad fate is far from sealed. Since the rise of Boasian anthropology in the early 20th century, scholars from a range of professions—from anthropology to linguistics—have been actively working to collaborate with endangered language communities around the world to preserve the heritage encapsulated in the delicate, though surprisingly resilient, medium of oral tradition. Ethnobotany is among the lines of research considered here, as the knowledge of plant cultivation, including their seasonal production and medicinal applications. Rather than counting down to the last speaker, as a self-fulfilling prophecy, bent on the extinction of Indigenous ways of life, one might also ask, What can be recovered? Given adequate documentation—and a sense of community memory—there are still many reasons to be hopeful. Knowledge, after all, is often socially distributed, meaning that every elder, or partial speaker, may retain some memory of the language and culture, even after centuries of assault. This piece ends with a note on future research, including recent developments in linguistic anthropology underscore the importance of areas such as ontology, medicine, kinship, and Indigenous philosophies which have been poorly documented in past waves of research—despite the great hope these areas hold for reversing these losses on the plane of intangible cultural heritage. In this emergent area of research, there is much for future scholars to explore. Thus, scholars are beginning to acknowledge that language does not merely consist of not only ways of seeing the world but also ways of being within the world, or “ontologies,” as ways of establishing lasting, real relationships with other humans and other species. The sense of kinship, for example, often goes beyond the realm of fellow humans to create far-reaching webs of relationships with other species, with whom one might establish enduring connections. Going beyond science, such as ethno-medicine, language is also imbued with philosophy, with many poignant lessons about how to survive the trials and travails all people face in the course of life. Ultimately, one must wonder just how much is lost when a language passes into extinction—and what can be gained by restoring these founts of traditional wisdom, passed down over the generations in the form of spoken language, with their complex vocabularies, grammars, and literary traditions.