最新英美报刊选读Unit1 Focus Return Why Do Languages Die Out? Throughout human history,the languages of powerful groups have spread while the languages of smaller cultures have become extinct.This occurs through official language policies or through the allure that the high prestige of speaking an imperial language can bring.These trends explain,for instance,why more language diversity exists in Bolivia than on the entire European continent, which has a long history of large states and imperial powers.As big languages spread,children whose parents speak a small language often grow up learning the dominant language.Depending on attitudes toward the ancestral language,those children or their children may never learn the smaller language,or they may forget it as it falls out of use.This has occurred throughout human history, but the rate of language disappearance has accelerated dramatically in recent years.最新英美报刊选读_Unit 1 Focus Why Do Languages Die Out? Throughout human history, the languages of powerful groups have spread while the languages of smaller cultures have become extinct. This occurs through official language policies or through the allure that the high prestige of speaking an imperial language can bring. These trends explain, for instance, why more language diversity exists in Bolivia than on the entire European continent, which has a long history of large states and imperial powers. As big languages spread, children whose parents speak a small language often grow up learning the dominant language. Depending on attitudes toward the ancestral language, those children or their children may never learn the smaller language, or they may forget it as it falls out of use. This has occurred throughout human history, but the rate of language disappearance has accelerated dramatically in recent years