a sociolinguistic investigation of the status of shelha : an endangered language in chlef- algeria

The world witnessed the disappearance of a considerable number of languages. the present article explores the phenomenon of language endangerment and language death among shelha speakers in chlef (algeria). its main purpose is to measure the degree of endangerment of this minority language which is spoken by an ethnic group in chlef, as well as to gain insight into the extent of language use and language proficiency among its speakers. the data were elicited by means of a questionnaire, and both unstructured and semi-structured in depth interviews. the findings have revealed that shelha is a moribund language in chlef which is not used by its speakers as their only means of communication in their daily conversations, but they still use it in very limitted settings.