Language Persistence

Mario J. Castro

This entry addresses the issue of language persistence, the ability of a language to survive and thrive in a society. Language persistence depends on a number of ambient conditions and other influential factors. Issues that influence language persistence include the historical period or era in question, those who use the language, the reasons that the language is used, and the importance of that language. All of these factors determine the degree to which the overall societal environment is accepting of that language. In most cases, it is not the mere existence of a single condition—such as a large base of timeless literature—that allows a language to exist but the intersection of internal and external pressures that have the greatest effect and influence on whether the language persistence will be supported or rejected. Because each of these factors is constantly changing, the conditions faced by any given language are always in ...

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