In the Western tradition, Etruscan is a good example of an extinct language. Nobody speaks it; very few can read what examples of it we have, and then can only do so in a very limited way. It hasn't been figured out yet.
It's interesting to view the lists of dead or extinct languages which can be found in such sources as Wikipedia. What is striking about these lists is that the languages shown as dead or extinct significantly outnumber those which are "living." Dead or extinct languages may have been transformed over time and become living languages, as Latin became Italian, Spanish and French. Or they may have been annihilated in the course of cultural assimilation. The English and Americans insisted that the children of those they conquered learn English. They even thought they were doing them a favor by conspiring in the destruction of native languages. And of course they were not alone in this linguistic imperialism.
The extinction of a language is, I think, a real tragedy. So essential is language that it may be said not merely a people or a culture but an entire world is lost when this takes place, or at least a world view, i.e. how the world is perceived by a people, how they interact with it. It's a kind of genocide. The extinction of languages is something like the extinction of those who spoke it. If that's the case, then our history has been a series of extinction events; hundreds of cultures have been lost or destroyed, ways of living have been wiped off the planet.
English is neither dead nor extinct, of course, but it's interesting to speculate regarding whether it will be one or the other, in time. I think it's more likely it will be transformed. It may be that American English will be transformed through the slow progression in the use of Spanish in the U.S., which will take place regardless of the efforts of those who will, whether they like it or not, die soon enough and likely not be replaced or replaced by a steadily dwindling number of their descendants with the same reactionary views. Or, and this is especially interesting, it may be that English will be transformed by the technology which now encourages us to use it less and less.
It happens that technology at one time contributed to the use of language in the sense that it led to the growth of written language. Increasing sophistication in the use of tools to increase agriculture and the production of goods resulted in an increase in communities and transactions between them and individuals, which in turn fostered the development of means of written communication to express law and memorialize commercial transactions and eventually treaties, the use of numbers and signs to represent them, etc. Or so it's traditionally thought.
Now technology promotes the devolution of written language. Thus we're developing a kind of shorthand, a restricted form of English employing letters as words by virtue of the way they sound ("you" becomes "u"), the use of abbreviations which have become instantly recognizable (e.g. "lol"), and emojis. The day will come, I predict (for all I know it may be here) when poetry, prose, lyrics are crafted on the basis of such devices of language; we may develop a new kind of hieroglyphic language.
Old English died out long ago. What will be come of the English of today? The chances of it being superseded as it superseded other languages are slim, I believe, but its users and their technology could well render it radically different from what it is now.
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