The issue of language loss is currently the focus of much linguistic research. This edited volume brings together work by theoretical linguists, field linguists and nonlinguist members of minority communities to provide an integrated view of how language is lost, from sociological and economic as well as from linguistic perspectives. It maps out some of the strategies applied by native communities and professional linguists in the face of language endangerment. Several authors address the understudied issue of what (beyond a linguistic system) is lost when a language becomes obsolescent.