I think it would be better suited to use the terms we use for natural languages. A natural language is dead when the last person who learned it as first language dies and are extinct when there is noone that would speak it at all.
In these terms, telnet has been dead for a long while, but it's extinct now.
Even that's argued within linguistics. There are languages which survive for generations as secondary languages (especially trade languages as Swahili or Chinook Jargon appear to have been originally). Also some like Latin, Hebrew and Sanskrit which survive for centuries but not as native languages.
That said, the above article does use extinction and death somewhat interchangably later on, but I suppose it's almost the same for small languages that nobody learns who is not a native speaker.
I think it would be better suited to use the terms we use for natural languages. A natural language is dead when the last person who learned it as first language dies and are extinct when there is noone that would speak it at all.
In these terms, telnet has been dead for a long while, but it's extinct now.
Even that's argued within linguistics. There are languages which survive for generations as secondary languages (especially trade languages as Swahili or Chinook Jargon appear to have been originally). Also some like Latin, Hebrew and Sanskrit which survive for centuries but not as native languages.
Can you cite sources where this is argued?
The wikipedia seems to make a clear definition:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_death
That said, the above article does use extinction and death somewhat interchangably later on, but I suppose it's almost the same for small languages that nobody learns who is not a native speaker.
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