Cultural Impact

Loss of Cultural Roots: One major impact of language extinction is the loss of cultural roots. A language is a significant part of a cultures heritage and identity. Unfortunately, when it is lost, along goes the traditional songs, practices, stories, etc. that were prominent in that native language.

Melting Pot: The Melting Pot metaphor refers to when minority groups adopt the language, culture, and customs of the dominant language in the country. This was one major lecture point earlier the semester, and can be seen in scenarios of parents who migrate to the United States and drop a lot of their native language traditions. This impacts the culture because they leave behind a lot of ethnic identity, and instead "melt" into a shared homogeneous culture.

Marginalization: The knowledge revolved around a native language, including indigenous perspectives and cultural practices are marginalized when a language is lost. This is a major impact because a lot of our ancestral practices and traditions about medicine, health, or agriculture were passed down to us for so long that we stuck to these norms. When a language is lost, this knowledge is unable to be passed down, and effects our cultural diversity and shared knowledge.