How Language Die/Survive
How to Measure the Progress of Any Language Humans are remarkable measurers. We track economic growth with GDP, populations with censuses, and trade with import-export data. But how do you measure the growth of something as living and emotional as a language? It’s tricky, because a language is not a country, not a product, and not bound by borders.😊 Here’s a practical framework, building on your points, with data-based indicators. 1. Language is Not Country-Specific: Think “Speakers, Not Borders”* English has more L2( Non native ) speakers in India, Pakistan, Nigeria, and the Philippines than native speakers in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand combined. Spanish has ∼500M speakers in Latin + North America vs. ∼47M in Spain. How to measure it: - Total Speaker Base: Native + L2 speakers. Ethnologue tracks this annually. - Youth Acquisition Rate: % of children under 15 who speak it at home as L1. If youth % is rising, the langu...