An endangered language is one that is likely to become extinct in the near future. Many languages are failing out of use and being replaced by others that are more widely used in the region or nation, such as English in the U.S. or Spanish in Mexico. Unless cur- rent trends are reversed, these endangered languages will become extinct within the next century. These languages are considered dead because they are no longer spoken in the form in which we find them in ancient writings. In the same way, the Old English of Chaucer's day is no longer spoken, but it has evolved into Modern English.
Outright genocide is one cause of language extinction.
For example, when European invaders exterminated the Tasmanians in the early 19th century, an unknown number of languages died as well. Far more often, however, languages become extinct when a community finds itself under pressure to integrate with a larger or more powerful group. But often the community is pressured to give up its language and even its ethnic and cultural identity. This has been the case for the ethnic Kurds in Turkey, who are forbidden by law to print or formally teach their language. It has also been the case for younger speakers of Native American languages, who, as recently as the ig6os, were punished for speaking their native languages at boarding schools.