first language, but this may be restricted to specific social domains (such as the home, where children interact with their parents and grandparents).
Definitely endangered (3): The language is no longer being learned as the mother tongue by children in the home. The youngest speakers are thus of the parental generation. At this stage, parents may still speak their language to their children, but their children do not typically respond in the language.
Severely endangered (2): The language is spoken only by grandparents and older generations; while the parent generation may still understand the language, they typically do not speak it to their children, or among themselves.
Critically endangered (1): The youngest speakers are in the great-grandparental generation, and the language is not used for everyday interactions. These older people often remember only part of the language but do not use it on a regular basis, since there are few people left to speak with.
Extinct (0): There is no one who can speak or remember the language.
For this edition, these are the definitions that have been adopted, and we have decided to represent languages in the last five categories: vulnerable, definitely endangered, severely endangered, critically endangered and extinct.
It is a sign of the vigour of language revitalization efforts in various parts of the world that, in the course of preparing this Atlas, our team has met with objections to the term 'extinct' to refer to languages that have lost their last first-language speakers within living memory of present generations, according to our objective criteria. Our term has caused offence among those who are successfully revitalizing languages with only a handful of speakers, and even reviving the use of languages that had once been thought to be beyond saving. This gives us new hope, and we are pleased to acknowledge that the bald term 'extinct' does not reflect the true situation for some languages. These are the languages whose use and transmission have been interrupted for a generation or more. Previous editions of this Atlas had not had to consider revitalization movements, but since the last edition, in many places, they have gained strength and second-language speakers. Such languages, which might now be classified as 'critically endangered', 'vulnerable' or some other term within our terminology, will be identified as being in the process of revitalization.
Lastly, a word should be added about an all-important factor in the transmission of language: literacy. It would have been desirable in this Atlas to indicate on the maps whether each marked language possesses a written form. But this is not easy or straightforward. First, the speakers may possess literacy, but not in their own tongue – rather, in one of greater prestige and a longer written tradition. Second, the ‘written form’ may have been devised by outside linguists for transcription purposes, rather than for the creation of a body of written work, or a means of ordinary communication, by the speakers. Third, a written tradition in the language may have died out before the spoken form, and it may have been unstable and not in general use. With so many variables, it is not possible to present this information in graphically coded form. Literacy, however, figures prominently in the discussions by the regional editors in the different chapters of this volume.
