Why do speakers of endangered Khoisan languages shift to dominant languages?

Speakers of endangered Khoisan languages often shift to dominant languages due to a combination of inexorable social, economic, linguistic, and demographic forces that marginalize indigenous minorities.1

This shift is frequently driven by the following factors:

• Social and Economic Pressure: Many Khoisan speakers face systemic marginalization, which incentivizes the adoption of dominant languages for daily communication and participation in broader society.1
• Loss of Transmission: As bilingual speakers increasingly shift to dominant languages, they often cease transmitting their mother tongue to the next generation, leading to the rapid contraction and eventual death of the language.1
• Historical Contact: Long-term contact with European colonists and Bantu speakers has historically accelerated this process. For example, in the western regions of southern Africa, Khoekhoe speakers shifted rapidly to Afrikaans, leading to the disappearance of their ancestral languages.2

While most Khoisan languages are under significant pressure, the Hadza language serves as a notable exception, maintaining its vitality through a pattern of stable bilingualism with Swahili.1