What are the similarities between language death and dialect death?

Question

This is the subject of an essay I'm doing. I have found loads of information on language death but none on dialect death. I have spent hours researching it in the library and online but have found nothing. Can anyone help? I just need a couple of points, I don't want anyone to answer the question fully for me.

Would I be correct in saying that language death is similar to dialect death because they are both affected by social organisation (i.e. affected by what the language of power is)? For instance, Scots Gaelic died out because English was the language of power and Gaelic was looked down upon and the Scots English dialect 'died out' or lessened because RP was the language of power and an elocution movement was put in place.

Answer 1

Language and dialect death are both going to follow similar trajectories. The only difference is that the last remaining speakers of a dialect can still be understood by other speakers of the language. The Brahmin (spelling?) dialect of Boston is a dying dialect of the United States. Perhaps there is some information about it if you google it specifically.

LATER EDIT: It's a bit more complicated than just "language of power". Many dialects and languages survive quite nicely DESPITE the existence of a language of power. The real key question is "What is the FUNCTION of my dialect/language versus the 'language of power'?". English survived the Norman invasion because English remained the majority language of 95% of the population so the economy could only function in English. Greek died out in Asia only a couple of centuries after Alexander because Aramaic served the function of mass communication better. Some dialects/languages survive for religious reasons (for example, Coptic for centuries after the Arabic invasion), some for cultural reasons (like the survival of Scots Gaelic to support the clan system, until the clan system was destroyed after the Jacobite War in the 18th century). So you have to look at what social/familial/cultural/religious/economic function that language/dialect no longer supports in order to understand why it is dying.

An excellent book on the subject of why some languages flourish and others don't is Ostler, "Empires of the Word, A Language History of the World" (or something like that).

UNRELATED NOTE FOR BRENNUS: I read the further articles you cited about genetics versus language. They both refer to only a single study (which I am familiar with). The vast majority of linguists think the study is, to say the least, seriously flawed in its methodology and its conclusions. Donald Ringe's quotes reflect the majority view--these ma/pa words are the result of baby babble being reinforced by cultural habits, not the result of words having a common genetic origin. Linguists also use the word "genetic" entirely differently than biologists. For a linguist, a genetic feature of a language means that it has developed in a rule-governed way from its ancestor language. It has nothing to do with DNA.

Answer 2

Language death and dialect death are very similar. You could say that they parallel each other.

There are many examples that you could use in your essay.

Some that come to my mind if I were writing the essay are the Leinster and East Ulster dialects of Irish Gaelic (extinct since the 1950's); The Cappadocian dialect of Greek once spoken in southern Turkey (extinct since the 1960's) and the Northern dialect of Cherokee (extinct since the early 1800's). The Eastern and Western dialects of Cherokee still have a few thousand speakers.

Some people even say that Cockney is now extinct in England and that it has merged with Standard British English (or RP) to form something called "Estuary English." Someone recently described Estuary English as a handshake between Cockney and RP.

However, personally, I'm not sure that Cockney is entirely gone yet. I think more research still needs to be done on this one

Answer 3

Just a small point - Scottish Gaelic has not died out. It is still spoken as an everyday language in the Western Isles and is used as a teaching medium in a small, but growing number of schools.