Moribund

Posted: July 2nd, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Society | Tags: | 2 Comments »

Latin-inscribed headstone

There are somewhere near 6,800 living languages according to an analyses under the Summer Institute of Linguistics. However, even the most optimistic estimates predict that about half of these are moribund, meaning, they will die with their current generation of speakers. A quarter of the world’s spoken languages currently have fewer than 1,000 speakers.

Moribund (pronounced “MOR-ih-bund”)

1. Approaching death; about to die.
2. *On the verge of becoming obsolete: moribund customs; a moribund way of life.

Synonyms

waning, stagnant, obsolescent

Source

The Politics of English as a World Language (pg. 32)   |  Photo by: diffendale

2 Comments on “Moribund”

  1. 1 BigWords said at 8:50 pm on February 6th, 2010:

    We lost another language a few days ago. Od, I think the language was called. The only woman who understood the complexities of the tenses (and other quirks) was quite old, so it would have been no surprise to lexicographers that she passed on. Sad nevertheless.

  2. 2 mason mckibben said at 9:46 pm on February 6th, 2010:

    Ah & the economics of the dollar as the global oil currency. We don’t need languages and speakers anymore. We want hedge funds and managers. Wonderful web page! Thanks!

    -mason

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