Introduction

Abstract

Some languages, such as Latin and Sanskrit, have been officially certified dead. A post-mortem would reveal that this is because their supply of speakers was exhausted. Languages which continue to enjoy a supply of speakers may be called living languages (les langues vivantes). Occasionally attempts are made to arrest the development of these languages, to freeze them at a certain stage in their evolution. It is widely believed, for example, that the French language has been entrusted to the safe-keeping of the Académie française, whose task it is therefore to preserve, protect and supervise it.