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When a language dies - when its last fluent speaker draws a final breath or, more commonly, when the penultimate generation decides, for reasons that are invariably pragmatic and frequently heartbreaking, not to transmit it to their children - what exactly is lost? The question is more difficult than it appears…

• Why does the writer consider conventional descriptions of language loss inadequate?
• What does the example of Yupik languages demonstrate about what is lost when a language dies?