Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index Linguicide is an intentional annihilation of a language. Also used as a derogatory term to describe unintentional death of languages through competition and other mechanisms. Some of the mechanisms leading to the death of languages: imposition of another language (e.g. by declaring it official) ban on the language that is to be annihilated linguistic competition (e.g. English vs. French in scientific publications) "glottopolitics and linguistic warfare" extermination of people speaking the language (e.g. Holocaust contributed to the decline of Yiddish) natural decline in native populations and their traditions (e.g. Native American languages) External Link Kurdish and Linguicide Linguicide Some authors use the term linguicide to refer to the way language is used. Linguicide is understood as a distortion of the language to beautify the truth (e.g. for political correctness). For example, "killing civilians" described as "collateral damage" would be a form of "linguicide". This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.