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<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; font-family: sans-serif; ">Wikipedia provides a nice overview of this issue (how sustainable the situation described in the last sentence is over the long-term is unclear, however):</span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; font-family: sans-serif; "><br>
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<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; font-family: sans-serif; ">"An <b>endangered language</b> is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language" title="Language" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(6, 69, 173); background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">language</a> that
is at risk of falling out of use. If it loses all its native speakers, it becomes a <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_death" title="Language death" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(6, 69, 173); background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">dead
language</a></i>. If eventually no one speaks the language at all it becomes an "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinct_language" title="Extinct language" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(6, 69, 173); background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">extinct
language</a>". </span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; font-family: sans-serif; ">….</span></div>
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<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">
While there is no definite threshold for identifying a language as endangered, three main criteria are used as guidelines:</p>
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<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em; ">The number of speakers currently living.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em; ">The mean age of native and/or fluent speakers.</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em; ">The percentage of the youngest generation acquiring fluency with the language in question.</li></ol>
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Some languages, such as those in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesia" title="Indonesia" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(6, 69, 173); background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Indonesia</a>,
may have tens of thousands of speakers but may be endangered because children are no longer learning them, and speakers are in the process of shifting to using the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_language" title="National language" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(6, 69, 173); background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">national
language</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_language" title="Indonesian language" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(6, 69, 173); background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Indonesian</a> in
place of local languages.</p>
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In contrast, a language with only 100 speakers might be considered very much alive if it is the primary language of a community, and is the first (or only) language of all children in that community, actually spoken."</p>
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Adam</p>
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<div>-- </div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; ">Assoc. Prof. Adam Schembri, PhD</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; "><br>
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; ">Director | National Institute for Deaf Studies and Sign Language</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; "><br>
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; ">La Trobe University | Melbourne (Bundoora) | Victoria | 3086 | Australia</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; "><br>
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; ">Tel : +61 3 9479 2887 | Mob: +61 432 840 744 |http://www.adamschembri.net/webpage/Welcome.html</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight:bold">From: </span>Anthony Chong <<a href="mailto:anthonychong@LIVE.COM">anthonychong@LIVE.COM</a>><br>
<span style="font-weight:bold">Reply-To: </span>linguists interested in signed languages <<a href="mailto:SLLING-L@LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU">SLLING-L@LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU</a>><br>
<span style="font-weight:bold">Date: </span>Mon, 26 Mar 2012 20:17:33 -0400<br>
<span style="font-weight:bold">To: </span><<a href="mailto:SLLING-L@LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU">SLLING-L@LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU</a>><br>
<span style="font-weight:bold">Subject: </span>death of sign language<br>
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Hello all,
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<div>I am curious. How will we be able to measure sign language death? Can we consider a language as death language if there less than 10 speakers? </div>
<div>Let me know. </div>
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