Truede dialekter

Aka-Bo

også: Bo

A North Great Andamanese language originally of northern Great Andaman, whose surviving speakers were resettled on Strait Island. Died with Boa Sr in 2010; her speech and songs were recorded by Anvita Abbi in the Vanishing Voices of the Great Andamanese project.

Dalmatian

også: Dalmatic, Vegliote

An extinct Romance language of the eastern Adriatic coast, intermediate between Italo-Romance and Eastern Romance. Its last dialect, Vegliote of the island of Krk, died with Tuone Udaina in 1898, a year after Matteo Bartoli recorded around 2,800 words from him.

Eyak

The sole non-Athabaskan member of the Athabaskan-Eyak branch of Na-Dené, spoken around the Copper River delta near Cordova, Alaska. Died with Marie Smith Jones in 2008; thoroughly documented by Michael Krauss, whose materials now support a second-language revival.

Mandan

også: Nuʼeta

A highly divergent Siouan language of the upper Missouri River, latterly spoken on the Fort Berthold reservation in North Dakota. Died with Edwin Benson in 2016, after Indrek Park's multi-year documentation with him; heritage teaching continues within the MHA Nation.

Old Prussian

også: Prussian, Prūsiskan

The only substantially attested West Baltic language, spoken in historical Prussia around the Sambia peninsula — today's Kaliningrad Oblast and north-eastern Poland. Extinct since the early 18th century, after the 1709–1711 plague; attested in three 16th-century catechisms and the Elbing vocabulary, with a modern reconstruction movement.

Sirenik

også: Sireniki Yupik, Old Sirenik

A highly divergent Eskaleut language of the village of Sireniki on the southern Chukchi peninsula, mutually unintelligible with its nearest Yupik relatives and sometimes treated as a third Eskimo branch. Died with its last speaker in 1997; the community now speaks Central Siberian Yupik and Russian.

Tehuelche

også: Aonekko ʼaʼien, Aonikenk

The last spoken Chonan language, of the Patagonian steppe in Santa Cruz province, southern Argentina. Died with Dora Manchado in 2019, taking the Chonan family with it as a living lineage; recorded in her final years by Javier Domingo, building on Ana Fernández Garay's documentation.

Ubykh

også: Pekhi

A Northwest Caucasian language of the Black Sea coast around present-day Sochi, carried to Anatolia in the 1864 deportation. Famous for one of the largest consonant inventories ever recorded — around eighty consonants against two phonemic vowels. Died with its last speaker, Tevfik Esenç, in 1992; extensively documented by Georges Dumézil.

Welsh Romani

også: Kååle, Welsh Kale

The inflected Northern Romani variety historically spoken by the Kååle of Wales. It was extensively documented by John Sampson in the early twentieth century and is now extinct as a first language, the last fluent speakers having died in the mid-twentieth century. It is notable as the last conservatively inflected Romani dialect attested in Britain.

Yagán

også: Yámana, Yágankuta

A language isolate of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago, around the Beagle Channel and Navarino Island. Source of the famously untranslatable word mamihlapinatapai; recorded in a 32,000-word missionary dictionary by Thomas Bridges. Died with Cristina Calderón in 2022; heritage revival continues at Puerto Williams.

ǀXam

også: Cape Bushman

A !Ui (Tuu) click language of the Upper Karoo in the Northern Cape, extinct since the 1910s. Survives in the vast Bleek and Lloyd archive of the 1870s and in South Africa's national motto, !ke e: ǀxarra ǁke — "diverse people unite".

Ainu

Et språklig isolat hos urspråklige ainufolk i Hokkaido og historisk i Sakhalin og Kurilene. Akutt truet med bare en håndfull morsmålstalere; gjenstand for en aktiv revitaliseringsinnsats.

Cappadocian Greek

Gresken i indre Anatolia, isolert i århundrer før befolkningsutvekslingen i 1923 brakte dens talere til Hellas. Sterkt tyrkpåvirket; en gang ansett utdødd, men gjenoppdaget i sentrale Hellas på 2000-tallet.

Chickasaw

også: Chikashshanompa

Et muskogeansk språk hos Chickasaw-nasjonen i Oklahoma. Nært beslektet med choctaw; akutt truet med aktiv revitalisering gjennom Chickasaw-nasjonens språkavdeling.

Crimean Tatar

også: Qırımtatarca

Et blandet turkspråk på Krimhalvøya, som stammer fra kontakt mellom kiptsjak- og oghuzvarianter. Akutt truet etter den sovjetiske deportasjonen i 1944; gjenstand for en aktiv revitaliseringsinnsats.

Great Andamanese

også: Present-day Great Andamanese, Jeru

A koine of the four North Great Andamanese languages, with a grammar based mainly on Jeru, spoken on Strait Island in the Andaman archipelago. Around three elderly speakers remain of one of the world's primary language families, notable for a grammatical system in which nouns and verbs are obligatorily marked with body-part-based prefixes.

Itelmen

også: Western Kamchadal

The sole surviving language of the Kamchatkan branch of Chukotko-Kamchatkan, spoken in villages along the western coast of Kamchatka such as Kovran. Only a few elderly fluent speakers remain; known for extremely complex consonant clusters, and structurally so divergent from Chukchi-Koryak that its place in the family is debated.

Jeju

også: Jejueo

Varianten på øya Jeju, ofte klassifisert som et separat koreanisk språk. Bevarer arkaiske trekk som har gått tapt på fastlandet og er akutt truet.

Kawésqar

også: Qawasqar, Alacalufe

The last surviving Alacalufan language, spoken at Puerto Edén on Wellington Island in the fjords of Chilean Patagonia. The language of the last nomadic canoe peoples of the southern channels; fewer than ten fluent speakers remain.

Ket

Det siste nålevende jenisseiske språket, snakket langs midtre Jenisej i sentrale Sibir. Cirka 200 eldre talere; nylig knyttet til nordamerikanske na-déné-familien i den omstridte Dene-Yenisey-hypotesen.

Koryo-mar

også: Koryo-mal, Koryo-saram Korean

Den koreanske varianten hos Koryo-saram, etterkommere av samfunn som ble deportert fra det sovjetiske Fjernøsten til Sentral-Asia i 1937. En hamgyŏng-basert dialekt, kraftig påvirket av russisk, i dag akutt truet.

Kusunda

også: Ban Raja

A language isolate of mid-western Nepal, historically spoken by forest-dwelling hunter-gatherers of the Dang valley and southern Rolpa. One fully fluent speaker remains; the language has no words for yes or no, expressing polarity through verb modification instead. Community revitalisation classes are ongoing.

Livonian

også: Līvõ kēļ, Liv

A Finnic Uralic language of the Livonian Coast of Courland, Latvia. The last fluent native speaker died in 2013, but an active revival sustains a small community of second-language speakers, supported by the University of Latvia Livonian Institute. Notable for its stød-like broken tone, rare among Uralic languages.

Lower Sorbian

også: Dolnoserbski, Niedersorbisch, Wendish

Et vestslavisk språk som snakkes av sorbisk minoritet i Nedre Lausitz i Brandenburg, sentrert rundt Cottbus (Chóśebuz). Akutt truet, med revitaliseringsinnsatser i tospråklige skoler og programmet Witaj.

Lushootseed

også: Puget Salish

Et salishansk språk hos Coast Salish-folkene rundt Puget Sound i vestlige Washington. Akutt truet; gjenstand for en aktiv revitalisering gjennom Tulalip- og Muckleshoot-stammene.

Manchu

Et tungusk språk og det historiske hoffspråket under Qingdynastiet (1644–1912). I dag akutt truet, med bare en håndfull morsmålstalere i Heilongjiang.

Miyakoan

også: Miyako, Miyako Ryukyuan, Miyako language

A Southern Ryukyuan Japonic language of the Miyako Islands in Okinawa Prefecture. Not mutually intelligible with Standard Japanese; preserves distinctive Ryukyuan phonology and is severely threatened by shift to Japanese.

Munsee

også: Munsee Delaware, Lunaape

An Eastern Algonquian language of the Lenape (Delaware), originally spoken around the lower Hudson, including present-day New York City. The last native-speaker community is the Delaware Nation at Moraviantown in south-western Ontario, where a single elderly first-language speaker was reported in the 2020s alongside a growing circle of second-language learners.

Nivkh

også: Gilyak

Et språklig isolat på Sakhalin og i nedre Amurbassenget i Russland. Akutt truet; et av få paleo-sibirske språk uten påviste slektninger.

Nǀuu

også: Nǁng, ǂKhomani

The last surviving language of the !Ui branch of the Tuu family, spoken in the southern Kalahari around Upington in the Northern Cape. One fluent native speaker remains, who runs a community language school; the language has one of the largest consonant inventories ever recorded, including dozens of click consonants.

Tsakonian

også: Tsakonika

Den eneste nålevende etterkommeren av den antikke doriske gresken, snakket i noen landsbyer på Peloponnes rundt Leonidio. Akutt truet; strukturelt forskjellig fra alle andre greske varianter, som stammer fra attisk-jonisk gresk.

Yaghnobi

også: Yagnobi

Et østiransk språk i Yaghnobdalen i Tadsjikistan. Den eneste nålevende etterkommeren av sogdisk, middelaldersk Silkeveis lingua franca; akutt truet.

Yuchi

også: Euchee, Tsoyaha

A language isolate of north-eastern Oklahoma, around Sapulpa within the Muscogee Nation, originally spoken in the south-eastern United States before removal. At most a handful of elderly native speakers remain; the Yuchi immersion school is again raising children with the language.

Zargari

også: Zargari Romani, Zargari Romanes, Zargar Romani

En sterkt truet romani-variant som snakkes i og rundt landsbyen Zargar i provinsen Qazvin i nordvestlige Iran, vest for Teheran. Samfunnet skal ifølge tradisjonen ha blitt bosatt i safavidenes tid og er en av de østligste belagte romanitalende populasjonene; dialekten bevarer en leksikalsk romanikjerne, men viser sterk kontaktpåvirkning fra persisk og aserbajdsjansk turkisk i fonologi, ordforråd og grammatikk. Talerne er få og den intergenerasjonelle overføringen er kraftig svekket.

Caló

også: Iberian Romani, Zincaló, Caló Romani

The Iberian para-Romani variety spoken by the Calé (Gitanos) of Spain and, in related forms, Portugal and southern France. A Romani-derived lexicon is embedded in a Castilian (or Catalan/Portuguese) grammatical frame; the older inflected Iberian Romani is no longer spoken. Caló vocabulary has left a marked imprint on Andalusian Spanish and flamenco.

Finnish Kalo

også: Kaale, Finnish Kaale, Fíntiko Rómma

A Northern Romani variety spoken by the Finnish Kale in Finland and, through twentieth-century migration, in Sweden. It shows heavy structural and phonological influence from Finnish, including consonant gradation, and is one of the most distinctive Northern Romani dialects. Intergenerational transmission has weakened markedly.

Jerusalem Domari

også: Domari of Jerusalem, Nawari

Den mest grundig dokumenterte domarivarianten, snakket av domsamfunnet i Gamlebyen i Jerusalem. Alvorlig truet, med bare noen hundre flytende talere; referansevarianten i Matras (2012), A Grammar of Domari.

Manx

også: Gaelg

Et goidelisk keltisk språk på Isle of Man. Funksjonelt utdødd i 1974 ved den siste morsmålstalerens død; gjenopplivet gjennom utdanning og i dag snakket som andrespråk av hundrevis.

Romanichal

også: Angloromani, British Romani, Pogadi Chib

The Romani variety of the Romanichal Travellers of England and the wider British Isles. The older inflected dialect is no longer spoken; it survives as Angloromani, a para-Romani register in which a substantial Romani-derived lexicon is embedded in an English grammatical frame. Diaspora communities exist in North America and Australia.

Scandoromani

også: Tavringer Romani, Traveller Romani, Rommani

A para-Romani variety spoken by Traveller communities in Sweden and Norway, combining a Romani-derived lexicon with a Scandinavian grammatical frame. It descends from the speech of Romani groups present in the region since the sixteenth century and survives today largely as an in-group vocabulary register.

Seke

også: Tangbe

A Tamangic (Tibeto-Burman) language of five villages in Upper Mustang, Nepal, with roughly 700 speakers worldwide. A sizeable share of the community now lives in New York City, where about half of the diaspora speakers are concentrated in a single Brooklyn apartment building.

Western Neo-Aramaic

også: Maaloula Aramaic, Siryon

The only surviving Western Aramaic vernacular, spoken in the Anti-Lebanon villages of Maaloula, Bakhʿa, and Jubbʿadin north of Damascus by both Christian and Muslim communities. Fewer than 10,000 fluent speakers remain after wartime displacement, most of them older adults.

Wymysorys

også: Vilamovian, Wymysiöeryś

A West Germanic language spoken only in the town of Wilamowice in southern Poland, descended from medieval German-Flemish settlement. Around 20 elderly native speakers remain, but a youth revitalisation movement has produced a new cohort of fluent younger speakers.

Cajun French

også: Louisiana French, Français cadien

Fransken hos cajunske samfunn i sørlige Louisiana, som stammer fra 1700-talls akadiske bosettere som ble fordrevet fra de maritime provinsene. Truet, med aktiv revitalisering gjennom CODOFIL og programmet Louisiana French Immersion.

Crimean Romani

også: Krymitika Roma, Crimean Roma

A Balkan Romani variety spoken by Roma communities of the Crimean peninsula and the northern Black Sea coast, marked by heavy contact influence from Crimean Tatar and other Turkic languages in both lexicon and phonology.

Hawrami

En eldre og særpreget kurdisk variant som snakkes i lommer langs grensen mellom Iran og Irak; rik på klassisk poetisk tradisjon.

Kalmyk

også: Kalmyk Oirat, Khalimag

Europas eneste mongolske språk, snakket i Republikken Kalmukkia av etterkommere av 1600-tallets oirat-migranter fra Dzungaria. Truet, men offisielt anerkjent.

Mariupolitan Greek

også: Rumeika, Azov Greek

Gresken i Mariupolregionen i Ukraina, som stammer fra samfunn som ble flyttet fra Krim av Katarina den store i 1778. Truet; strukturelt nær pontisk gresk.

Mlabri

også: Mrabri, Yumbri

A Khmuic (Austroasiatic) language of formerly nomadic hunter-gatherers in the highlands of Nan and Phrae provinces, northern Thailand, and adjacent Laos. Roughly 100–300 speakers; its numeral system allows only one and two to modify nouns, and it lacks the register contrasts typical of related languages.

Occitan

også: Lenga dʼòc, Provençal

Et romansk språk i sørlige Frankrike, Arandalen i Catalonia og noen alpine daler i Italia. De middelalderske trubadurenes språk; i dag truet i hverdagslig bruk.

Scottish Gaelic

også: Gàidhlig

Et goidelisk keltisk språk nært beslektet med irsk, snakket på de Ytre Hebridene og i deler av de skotske høylandene. Cirka 60 000 talere, med fortsatt revitalisering gjennom gælisk-medial utdanning.

Wakhi

også: Wakhi Pamir

Et pamiriransk språk som snakkes langs Wakhankorridoren der Afghanistan, Tadsjikistan, Pakistan og Kina møtes. Et av de mest arkaiske iranske språkene; bevarer trekk fra gammelpersisk som har gått tapt andre steder.

Ruska Roma

også: Russian Romani, North Russian Romani, Xaladitka Roma

A Northern Romani variety spoken by the Ruska Roma across Russia and Ukraine, shaped by long and intensive contact with Russian. It was the basis of a short-lived literary standard developed in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s and remains one of the more vital Northern Romani dialects.