What impact does colonization have on indigenous languages?

Colonization typically results in the dominance of the colonizer's language due to the cultural, political, and economic power exerted by the colonizing group. When one group colonizes another, they often impose their language as a medium of administration, education, trade, and formal communication, which can overshadow and marginalize indigenous languages. This dominance can lead to a decline in the number of speakers of indigenous languages as people may feel pressured to adopt the colonizer's language for social mobility, access to resources, or integration into the new socio-political structures being established. Over time, this can result in language shift, where the indigenous language is no longer spoken in favor of the colonizer's language, and in extreme cases, can lead to language extinction.

In contrast, the other options do not accurately reflect the typical impacts of colonization on indigenous languages. While some indigenous languages may be preserved in pockets, the general trend is a decline rather than preservation. Additionally, colonization does not inherently encourage multilingualism; it often leads to the suppression of indigenous languages instead. The claim that it has no significant effect overlooks the extensive historical evidence showing the profound changes languages undergo in colonized regions.