dead language

English

Noun

dead language (plural dead languages)

1. A language which no longer has any native speakers.

   Synonym: extinct language

   Coordinate term: living language

   • 1799, Edward Dubois, A Piece of Family Biography, volume II, page 20:

     Supper being over, the lawyer took his leave, and the doctor began to ſound the learned clerk reſpecting his proficiency in the dead languages. "As to dead languages," replied the ſchoolmafter, "I was once a vaſt pretty ſcholar indeed, but want of exercise has made me main ſlack—I can't get over my ground as I uſed to do. Then as to the t'other dead fellow, I could never greek it at all, that's flat. And, Lord bleſs you! my Latin is of no more uſe to me here than—than—" Here he ſtuck for want of a ſimile; when Mr. Le Dupe helped him out by ſaying, "that it is to a young man at college, where it is conſidered a pedantic inſult, and an unpardonable bore, to utter a Latin ſentence."

Usage notes

• It is questionable whether e.g., Latin or Ancient Greek should be considered dead languages, because they truly never became extinct, as they evolved into the modern Romance languages and Modern Greek, respectively.

Translations

language with no native speakers

Arabic: لُغَة بَائِدَة f (luḡa(t) bāʔida), لُغَة مَيِّتَة f (luḡa(t) mayyita), لُغَة مُنْقَرِضَة f (luḡa(t) munqariḍa), لُغَة مُنْدَثِرَة f (luḡa(t) mundaṯira) Azerbaijani: ölü dil Basque: hizkuntza hil Catalan: llengua morta f Chinese: Mandarin: 死語言 / 死语言 (sǐyǔyán), 死語 / 死语 (zh) (sǐyǔ), 滅絕語言 / 灭绝语言 (mièjué yǔyán) Dutch: dode taal f Esperanto: mortinta lingvo Estonian: surnud keel Finnish: kuollut kieli French: langue morte (fr) f, langue ancienne f Galician: lingua morta (gl) f Georgian: მკვდარი ენა (mḳvdari ena) German: tote Sprache (de) f Hungarian: holt nyelv (hu) Indonesian: bahasa mati (id) Italian: lingua estinta f Japanese: 死語 (ja) (しご, shigo) Kannada: ಸತ್ತಭಾಷೆ (kn) (sattabhāṣe) Kapampangan: meteng amanu Kazakh: өлген тіл (ölgen tıl) Khmer: ភាសាស្លាប់ (pʰiesaa slap) Korean: 사어 (ko) (sa'eo) Norwegian: dødt språk n Polish: język wymarły m Portuguese: língua morta (pt) f Romanian: limbă moartă (ro) f Russian: мёртвый язы́к m (mjórtvyj jazýk) Spanish: lengua muerta f Swedish: utdött språk n Tagalog: patay na wika Tamil: வழக்கிழந்த மொழி (vaḻakkiḻanta moḻi) Turkish: ölü dil (tr) Ukrainian: мертва мова (uk) f (mertva mova)

Further reading

• dead language on Wikipedia.Wikipedia