Sprachverlusts

Sprachverlust is the loss or substantial impairment of the ability to use a language, including speaking, understanding, reading, or writing. The term can refer to an individual’s language abilities as a result of medical or neurological conditions, as well as to broader processes that threaten a language within a community.

Neurological Sprachverlust, or aphasia, arises from brain injury, stroke, tumor, or neurodegenerative disease. It typically affects speech production, comprehension, or both, with subtypes such as Broca’s aphasia and Wernicke’s aphasia. In children, developmental language disorders or early language attrition can also manifest as language loss. Sociolinguistic Sprachverlust describes the attrition or extinction of a language within a speech community, often due to language shift toward a dominant language, migration, education systems, or policy decisions. Efforts in language revitalization aim to counteract this process.

Causes and risk factors vary by level of analysis. For individuals, stroke, traumatic brain injury, dementia, congenital impairments, and hearing loss can contribute to Sprachverlust. For communities, globalization, displacement, intergenerational transmission gaps, and insufficient institutional support can drive language loss.

Diagnosis and treatment involve multispecialist assessment and intervention. Medical evaluation and neuroimaging may establish etiology, while speech-language pathology guides therapy to restore function or develop compensatory strategies. Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices can support communication. In multilingual contexts, tailored approaches address bilingual or bidialectal needs and minimize interference between languages.

Note on terminology: the form "Sprachverlusts" is not standard German. The correct singular is Sprachverlust, and the plural is Sprachverluste. Standard terminology helps avoid confusion.