The End of Languages: Causes & Reversal 🌍
Explore how languages become extinct, their stages of death, and the possibility of revival in this PBS series.

Storied
436.3K views • Feb 27, 2025

About this video
Like species, languages can go extinct. But there are different stages of language death, and some can be reversed.
Otherwords is a PBS web series on Storied that digs deep into this quintessential human trait of language and finds the fascinating, thought-provoking, and funny stories behind the words and sounds we take for granted. Incorporating the fields of biology, history, cultural studies, literature, and more, linguistics has something for everyone and offers a unique perspective on what it means to be human.
Host: Erica Brozovsky, Ph.D.
Creator/Director: Andrew Matthews & Katie Graham
Writer: Erica Brozovsky, Ph.D.
Producer: Katie Graham
Editor/Animation: Andrew Matthews
Executive Producer: Amanda Fox
Fact Checker: Yvonne McGreevy
Executive in Charge for PBS: Maribel Lopez
Director of Programming for PBS: Gabrielle Ewing
Assistant Director of Programming for PBS: John Campbell
Stock Images from Shutterstock
Music from APM Music
Otherwords is a production of Spotzen for PBS Digital Studios.
© 2025 PBS. All rights reserved.
sources:
https://guides.lib.uconn.edu/c.php?g=1232158&p=9415488
https://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/guide/languages.shtml#:~:text=1.,by%20less%20than%20100%2C000%20people
https://www.unesco.org/en/decades/indigenous-languages
https://oxfordre.com/linguistics/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.001.0001/acrefore-9780199384655-e-347#:~:text=Language%20shift%20occurs%20when%20a,widespread%20language%20replacement%20and%20loss
https://www.languagemagazine.com/2023/05/22/cornish-making-a-comeback/
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/apr/02/how-manx-language-came-back-from-dead-isle-of-man
https://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/bringing-eyak-back-new-generation-daxunhyuu-learn-their-mother-tongue
https://www.eyakpreservationcouncil.org/culture/eyak-revitalization-project/
https://www.globallanguageservices.co.uk/manx-language-return/
https://www.rocketlanguages.com/blog/why-you-should-learn-a-dead-language
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1504&context=gc_pubs
https://www-cambridge-org.ezpv7-web-p-u01.wpi.edu/core/books/language-maintenance-and-shift/FC511EF9CB53FEFD72E159A7FB808ADB
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2981914/
https://terralingua.org/langscape_articles/cristina-calderon-memories-of-my-yagan-grandmother/
https://www.npr.org/2022/02/18/1081584395/cristina-calderon-chiles-last-known-yaghan-speaker-dies-at-93
https://blog.castac.org/2022/05/thinking-in-constellations-problematizing-indigeneity-in-the-atacama-desert-chile/#4note
https://www.npr.org/2024/05/11/1250756736/in-chile-a-once-extinct-language-is-coming-back-to-life
https://www.npr.org/2024/10/14/nx-s1-5148780/chile-lost-language-atacama-desert
Otherwords is a PBS web series on Storied that digs deep into this quintessential human trait of language and finds the fascinating, thought-provoking, and funny stories behind the words and sounds we take for granted. Incorporating the fields of biology, history, cultural studies, literature, and more, linguistics has something for everyone and offers a unique perspective on what it means to be human.
Host: Erica Brozovsky, Ph.D.
Creator/Director: Andrew Matthews & Katie Graham
Writer: Erica Brozovsky, Ph.D.
Producer: Katie Graham
Editor/Animation: Andrew Matthews
Executive Producer: Amanda Fox
Fact Checker: Yvonne McGreevy
Executive in Charge for PBS: Maribel Lopez
Director of Programming for PBS: Gabrielle Ewing
Assistant Director of Programming for PBS: John Campbell
Stock Images from Shutterstock
Music from APM Music
Otherwords is a production of Spotzen for PBS Digital Studios.
© 2025 PBS. All rights reserved.
sources:
https://guides.lib.uconn.edu/c.php?g=1232158&p=9415488
https://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/guide/languages.shtml#:~:text=1.,by%20less%20than%20100%2C000%20people
https://www.unesco.org/en/decades/indigenous-languages
https://oxfordre.com/linguistics/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.001.0001/acrefore-9780199384655-e-347#:~:text=Language%20shift%20occurs%20when%20a,widespread%20language%20replacement%20and%20loss
https://www.languagemagazine.com/2023/05/22/cornish-making-a-comeback/
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/apr/02/how-manx-language-came-back-from-dead-isle-of-man
https://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/bringing-eyak-back-new-generation-daxunhyuu-learn-their-mother-tongue
https://www.eyakpreservationcouncil.org/culture/eyak-revitalization-project/
https://www.globallanguageservices.co.uk/manx-language-return/
https://www.rocketlanguages.com/blog/why-you-should-learn-a-dead-language
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1504&context=gc_pubs
https://www-cambridge-org.ezpv7-web-p-u01.wpi.edu/core/books/language-maintenance-and-shift/FC511EF9CB53FEFD72E159A7FB808ADB
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2981914/
https://terralingua.org/langscape_articles/cristina-calderon-memories-of-my-yagan-grandmother/
https://www.npr.org/2022/02/18/1081584395/cristina-calderon-chiles-last-known-yaghan-speaker-dies-at-93
https://blog.castac.org/2022/05/thinking-in-constellations-problematizing-indigeneity-in-the-atacama-desert-chile/#4note
https://www.npr.org/2024/05/11/1250756736/in-chile-a-once-extinct-language-is-coming-back-to-life
https://www.npr.org/2024/10/14/nx-s1-5148780/chile-lost-language-atacama-desert
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Video Information
Views
436.3K
Likes
18.3K
Duration
8:47
Published
Feb 27, 2025
User Reviews
4.8
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