The loss of a language: The Case of Nahuat

Abstract

The loss of a language is regrettable. When a language disappears, its grammar, sounds, ways of thinking, and culture is also gone.
Statistics on language viability demonstrate that languages have and are dying at an alarming speed. At present, a great number of
(minority) languages are threatened to face extinction. Several adverse factors outside the linguistic community have eroded and undermined the vitality of the minority groups to preserve their ethnic language. In addition to these factors, this paper presents the case of Nawat, the language of the Pipils. The purpose of this paper is to present the factors intervening in a language attrition process, and in particular, provide a historical account for the present state of endangerment of the Nawat language.