简介

绝迹语言，又称灭绝语言、灭亡语言、死语，指一种已经不再有人以之作为母语的语言。根据估计，每两星期就有一种人类的语言灭亡，变成绝迹语言。

但在一些特殊情况中，某些帝国需借助之前已灭亡帝国的威名来保持自己的势力，跟这个已灭亡帝国有关的语言就得以持续被使用在科学、律法、或宗教等各种方面，即使它已经是个绝迹语言，这样的绝迹语言就仍然会被保存下来，并继续以非母语的方式使用，例如拉丁语与古希腊语被用来造科学方面的新词，而其他如古教会斯拉夫语、阿维斯陀语、科普特语、及吉士语则仍然用于宗教仪式上。

其他有些组织则会为了特定情境、文化的气氛营造，而偶尔使用这些绝迹语言，例如美国童子军就会在他们一个童军仪式“圣箭盟”里使用一种北美印地安人的绝迹语言伦尼莱纳佩语。

参考文献

1.Adelaar, Willem F. H.; & Muysken, Pieter C. (2004). The languages of the Andes. Cambridge language surveys. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521362757.

2.Brenzinger, Matthias (ed.) (1992) Language Death: Factual and Theoretical Explorations with Special Reference to East Africa. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-013404-9.

3.Campbell, Lyle; & Mithun, Marianne (Eds.). (1979). The languages of native America: Historical and comparative assessment. Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 0292746245.

4.Davis, Wade. (2009). The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World. House of Anansi Press. ISBN 0887847668.

5.Nancy Dorian (1978). Fate of morphological complexity in language death: Evidence from East Sutherland Gaelic. Language, 54 (3), 590-609.

6.Dorian, Nancy C. (1981). Language death: The life cycle of a Scottish Gaelic dialect. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0812277856.

7.Dressler, Wolfgand & Wodak-Leodolter, Ruth (eds.) (1977) Language death (International Journal of the Sociology of Language vol. 12). The Hague: Mouton.

8.Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (Ed.). (2005). Ethnologue: Languages of the world (15th ed.). Dallas, TX: SIL International. ISBN 1-55671-159-X.

9.Harrison, K. David. (2007) When Languages Die: The Extinction of the World's Languages and the Erosion of Human Knowledge. New York and London: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195181920.

10.Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.

11.Mohan, Peggy; & Zador, Paul. (1986). Discontinuity in a life cycle: The death of Trinidad Bhojpuri. Language, 62 (2), 291-319.

12.Sasse, Hans-Jürgen (1992) 'Theory of language death', in Brenzinger (ed.) Language Death, pp. 7–30.

Schilling-Estes, Natalie; & Wolfram, Walt. (1999). Alternative models of dialect death: Dissipation vs. concentration. Language, 75 (3), 486-521.

13.Sebeok, Thomas A. (Ed.). (1973). Linguistics in North America (parts 1 & 2). Current trends in linguistics (Vol. 10). The Hauge: Mouton. (Reprinted as Sebeok 1976).