Linguicide is a little used term describing the intentional causing of the death of a language. It is also used as a derogatory term to describe unintentional death of languages through competition and other mechanisms. Some of the most recent historical instances of linguicide were in Australia and the USA.

Some of the mechanisms leading to the death of languages and recent historical examples:

• instituted separation of children from their parents, e.g. Aboriginal children in Australia. See Stolen Generation.
• imposition of another language (e.g. by declaring it official, English-only movement)
• ban on the language that is to be annihilated (e.g. Hawaiian in Hawaii by the USA after its annexation; German in the USA after the World Wars, German in Italy after WWII)
• linguistic competition (e.g. English vs. French in scientific publications
• "glottopolitics and linguistic warfare"
• extermination of people speaking the language (e.g. Holocaust contributed to the decline of Yiddish, Indian Wars)
• destruction of the traditional culture (e.g. Native American languages by the USA)
• natural decline in native populations and their traditions

See also

• List of extinct languages
• List of endangered languages
• Extinct language
• Endangered language
• Language policy
• Minority language
• Regional language
• Language revival
• Cultural genocide

External links

• Kurdish and Linguicide
• Linguicide