Cave house in Cushendun. Photo by David McFarland.
How do Guy's types of language change apply to Grinevald Craig's types of language death?
Change into a different language may happen through internal change or language contact. This can even affect very big, powerful languages such as Latin. Yet internal change is not enough for a language to actually die. A language dies either if all speakers die (Sudden death) or if all of its speakers shift to another language (Gradual death) until the original language is forgotten, its remains sometimes integrated into the language towards which the shift happened. This means that gradual death is inherently a result of language contact, for there has to be a language towards which the community shifts. Whether the outcome of language contact is death of one of the languages in contact, or mere language change, depends on the size, prestige, and dominance of the respective languages as outlined in the post about Guy's article. Sudden death may be through disease, famine, natural disaster or genocide. Some form of language contact may happen in the latter, but with a very abrupt ending. There may not be enough time for the language contact to result in shift or borrowings, nor perhaps the will.
Change into a different language may happen through internal change or language contact. This can even affect very big, powerful languages such as Latin. Yet internal change is not enough for a language to actually die. A language dies either if all speakers die (Sudden death) or if all of its speakers shift to another language (Gradual death) until the original language is forgotten, its remains sometimes integrated into the language towards which the shift happened. This means that gradual death is inherently a result of language contact, for there has to be a language towards which the community shifts. Whether the outcome of language contact is death of one of the languages in contact, or mere language change, depends on the size, prestige, and dominance of the respective languages as outlined in the post about Guy's article. Sudden death may be through disease, famine, natural disaster or genocide. Some form of language contact may happen in the latter, but with a very abrupt ending. There may not be enough time for the language contact to result in shift or borrowings, nor perhaps the will.
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