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Language shift
A language can cease to be the ordinary spoken language while remaining central to teaching, ritual or literature. Conversely, a new administrative language need not instantly replace home speech.
Language shift
Different timelines
A language can stop being an ordinary vernacular while remaining a school subject, sacred language or literary medium. An archive can change its official language without documenting household speech. Therefore “replaced” must be attached to a domain: decrees, schooling, letters, ritual or daily conversation. A last surviving inscription is not a last speaker.
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A reading check
Worked question
An archive switches from one administrative language to another in one year. What can you safely conclude?
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That the archive’s documented practice changed. You need other evidence to argue when ordinary speech changed and for whom.