Question

Describe 3 factors that contribute to a subtractive language context, language shift, and eventually language death. Explain how they contribute to a subtractive language situation.

Answer 1

The three factors that contribute to subtractive language situation are:

• Sociocultural factor.
  • Under the influence of dominant culture occurs the gradual shift of language as more and more people prefer to speak the influential language.
  • The languages without literary form are prone to be in subtractive language situation.
  • Shifting of tribal cultures to mainstream culture and adoption of new mainstream language contribute to the death of tribal languages.
• Economic reason.
  • The language that has more economic value,that is the language that is used to carry out the economic activities are more used.Knowledge and efficiency in these languages provides the users with better economic opportunities,thus,the native languages that are not very economically profitable are discarded.
• Political reason
  • Language preferred by the political institutions are most preferred and most used by the common people.
  • Colonization had a deep impact on the world's languages,it made certain European languages more popular and preferred.Also the use of these languages are responsible for the decline and death of many local and native languages in the world.