10 Lost Languages of the United States

There are thousands of languages across the world, but many are dying out every year. Even within the United States, indigenous languages like Eyak and Penobscot are all but forgotten. Today, we're telling the stories of the culture and people of these once-prosperous languages, and what led to their disappearance.

[S.p.a.c.e.C.o.w.b.o.y]

In my home town of Leigh, Northwest England, there was a language spoken by the coal miners of the surrounding pits. During the miners strikes in the 70s/80s it was used on the picket lines as a way to convey information away from the police. I learned it in the late 80s in primary school as a child from a classmate, but this little known language has all but died out and within a generation it's likely to be lost to time. 😊

[JBTriple]

yeah Language presrvation is Important also Arrival(2016) made me appreciate more also the Dormant and Extinct could have been used to solve the many unanswered questions in humanities history why its important to preserve them.

[cherylcampbell]

I'm not too far from Tillamook. Many many tribes and languages were in Oregon. Officially, a little over 100 languages were spoken within the present-day Oregon borders.

[christianavance]

Could this possibly be a positive use for AI? Having professional linguists travel to the areas that are about to experience this and have their languages recorded catalogued with AI availability to train people the languages once they are as completely documented as possible.

[zinja]

Sadly, the links you said would be in the description are not present.

[Orangesky-lc]

The online dictionary Glosbe has several of these languages. I’m not sure how many words it has translations for, but I still think it’s worth mentioning.

[btetschner]

A+ video!
LOVE IT! Hope there is an opportunity for revival for those that believe it is worth it!

[Ciesiam]

I’d like to know what comment of mine was removed stating it violated your standards? Consider me TOTALLY confused. 🙄

[pierreabbat]

Eyak was declining for centuries before it died, losing ground to its distant relative Tlingit.
Penobscot is an Algonquian language, so if it dies partially recorded, it can be reconstructed from closely related Algonquian languages. Tunica, however, is an isolate.
As a North Carolinian, I'd like to mention Carolina Algonquian, from which we get "tippity-witchet", another name for a Venus flytrap.

[jliller]

All the native languages spoken in Florida in 1492 became extinct by 1776. We at least know Apalachee was a Muskogean language, related to surviving languages like Muscogee/Creek. My understanding is a research project is ongoing trying to gather the scraps of the Timucua language in an effort to determine its origins. All the languages of central and southern Florida are completely lost and mysterious in origin.

[LillibitOfHere]

It’s so sad how much history and culture of the native Americans was destroyed by Europeans invaders and immigrants.

[shutterchick]

Lol .. upstate NY lady here... I love the way people mispronounce our place names.. We always say "Awl-benny" ir "Awl-binny", not "Al-bay-ne".

[shutterchick]

Martha's Vineyard sign language isn't entirely extinct... at least 20% of ASL can be traced back to it.

[btetschner]

Eating a big bowl of Reese's Puffs cereal...while watching this video!

[customerservice]

You claim that not letting these languages die out is important, but you don't specify why. I see no reason why it's important for a handful of people to speak a dialect shared by only a handful of others. I understand that language and culture each affect each other, and the loss of a culture could potentially be important, but culture can be shared amongst people who speak different languages. also we're all going to be warm dirt at the end of the day anyway so in the grand scheme of things why not end human suffering rather than devoting time and energy to helping a dozen people keep speaking to that same dozen people in a language that nobody knows.

[staubachrt]

Interesting how she uses the adjective “white” when referring to the settlers of California. Not only is this inaccurate, but it’s bad journalism. It’s pretty telling when “journalists” use wholly unnecessary adjectives. This channel just lost a little more credibility on top of what it had previously lost.

[jliller]

Plants and animals that become endangered or go extinct often do so due to human activity, so referring to language by those same terms is not inappropriate.

Languages can die out naturally, like Latin, which essentially evolved into various other languages.

Most native languages have no reason to remain alive except for the sake of cultural identity. From a purely practical standpoint, English the more useful language in the USA or Canada because you need it to speak to a lot more people.

It is a normal process for small ethnic minorities to be adsorbed into larger surrounding majorities, much as immigrants come to America speaking their native tongue and within a generation or two the family is speaking only English. Of course, stuff like the boarding schools tried to forcibly accelerate the process.

[reddblackjack]

It's time for someone to use AI to develop a workable universal translator. Like they have in star trek. That way when humans are down to only a few languages, we can still translate ancient texts and inscriptions. We might learn something about how modern languages developed as well. Like how Hebrew was a phonetic version of language based loosely off Egyptian spoken language. I saw a show a few years ago that details the process. This genius linguist figured it out. There's also a subtle and ancient connection between almost all Eurasian languages. They all essentially came from ancient Sanscrit. An AI or two could help decipher stuff we can't figure out. I've heard that we don't know how Aramaic sounded, for instance. That was the language Jesus spoke. I think it's all fascinating!

[btetschner]

Desperate times call for desperate measures...

When the reliable elements of establishing, developing, and maintaing a culture breakdown completely, it is time for a Hail Mary.

x Regarding the Eyak language:
o Apparently the language had an oral tradition, a tradition that is prone to forgetfulness because there are not extensive written records.
† Just knowing the linguistical elements of the language isn't enough to maintain it throughout time.

o As silly as it sounds, they should put elements of the Eyak language on kayaks
† Then the language would at least have a part in the public and the culture, it that would be a start.
† They should then take those Eyaks (Eyak kayaks) and complete in the Kayak Sprints in the Olympics!

x In relation to the language Yana:
o The Yana people apparently lived partly in Shasta County, which is the home of Mount Shasta.
† Mount Shasta is the inspiration for the soda Shasta, one of the best-selling sodas in the world.
- The Weird History Food video about Shasta was my request.

o Those interested in the Yana language should sell Shasta.
† It could be the noble language of Shasta Elites!

x About Penobscot:
o Stephen King (who is from Maine) should write a novel that uses Penobscot as one of the elements of the story.
o He uses the history of Roanoke Island (Storm of the Century) and a name of a demon named Legion from the bible (Storm of the Century) for his writing, he certainly seems to succeed using historical elements like that.
o Maine is his home state and that is part of their history.

x For Tunica:
o They should sell tunics with words from their language on it.
o They could also promote the video game Tunic.
† Heck, they should have the fox from that game be their spokesperson!

x About Tillamook:
o Some say that the Tillamook has a strong spiritual heritage, maybe the places that are named Tillamook incorporate the language into some part of their culture...

x In reference to Siuslaw:
o Those interested in reviving the language could create some type of river culture (there is the Siuslaw River).

x And Eastern Atakapa:
o If the oral tradition of the Atakapa say that they originated from the sea, some type of sea culture using their language might work.

x Also Susquehannock:
o According to some, the Susquehannock is known today as the Conestoga which is associated with A LOT:
† They could put parts of their language on Conestoga wagons.
† They could put parts of their language on Conestoga trucks.
† They could figure out something with the Conestoga Mall in Grand Island, Nebraska (that was the mall I went to during public school).
† They could create a lake culture by the Conestoga Lake in Nebraska.
- Interesting Fact: There is a Contestoga Lake in Lancaster County Nebraska and the Conestoga group lived in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania!

x For Martha's vineyard Sign Language:
o The cast from the movie CODA could start a vineyard for those interested in the language.

x For Albany Dutch and New Jersey Dutch:
o They should sell those stroopwafels at in their own coffee shops and use parts of their languages.
† That would at least generate interest.
† I love those stroopwafels, my elder brother bought me a boxed tower of them for Christmas a couple of years ago.

Note: The only reason Shasta is not bigger and more well-known today is because they were completing for an ideal window of opportunity against two of the greatest marketers in history: Pepsi and Coke.

[clbcl]

You forgot conversational English for anyone under 15