For Wednesday 2/16, please read the following two articles, both of which can be downloaded from the “Readings” section of this website:

Krauss, Michael. 1992. The world’s languages in crisis. Language 68: 4-10.

Hale, Ken. 1992. Language endangerment and the human value of linguistic diversity. Language 68: 35-42.

Both of the articles address the topics of language endangerment and language death:  the Krauss article presents an overview picture of imperiled languages across the world, while the Hale article delves more deeply into what exactly is lost when a language disappears.