THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE DEATH

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THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE DEATH

• Summary of David Crystal (2000). Language death.
  Cambridge Cambridge University Press.
• Dr. Alicia Pousada 2007

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I. What is language death?

• The language pool
• The size of the problem
• Levels of danger

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II. Why should we care?

• Because we need diversity
• Because languages express identity
• Because languages are repositories of history
• Because languages contribute to the sum of human
  knowledge
• Because languages are interesting in themselves

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III. Why do languages die?

• Factors which put people in physical danger
• Natural disasters leading to death or destruction
  of habitat
• Disease (especially AIDS)
• Economic exploitation
• Political conflict leading to civil war, ethnic
  murder, or genocide

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• Factors which change the peoples culture
• Cultural assimilation
• Military dominance
• Urbanization
• Media
• Bilingualism
• Opposition

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• Stages of assimilation
• Immense pressure on people to speak dominant
  language
• Emerging bilingualism (point at which L1 can be
  saved)

• Shift on part of younger generation?
• L2 along with shame at using L1?
• self-conscious semilingualism? L2
  monolingualism

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Bilingualism as salvation

• Dominant language used for outward movement
• Dominated language used for inward identity
  (preserves pedigree)
• Healthy bilingualism has 2 languages as
  complementary not competing
• Requires changes in attitudes

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Forms of opposition

• Open antipathy from governments that see
  linguistic diversity as divisive-suppression and
  punishment
• Indifference
• Folklorization of indigenous languages
• Language murder vs. language suicide

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Australian aborigines 1910
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Australian lost generation (1912-1969)
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Cootamundra Aboriginal Girls Training Home
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IV. Where do we begin?
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Establishing top priorities

• Information gathering
• Establishing of general theoretical framework
• Bottom-up and top-down initiatives
• Long term campaign on many fronts simultaneously

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Language protests in India
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Fostering positive community attitudes

• Negative attitudes very common among small
  language speakers
• Need to understand reasons for these

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Vital to deal with basic physical needs of people
before language issues
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Role of outsiders

• Outsiders have important role in seeing more
  objectively the language issues and bringing
  linguistic expertisealso training native
  linguists

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• Need for language awareness efforts preventive
  linguistics to annihilate linguistic apathy (cf.
  disease prevention)
• Dispelling of myths about language learning
• Raising of morale, prestige, self-esteem without
  falling into elitism

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Promoting authenticity of community

• All varieties must be recognized
• Native speakers must be prepared for changes to
  language as it expands and takes in outside
  influencesif not, younger generations wont
  continue to use it
• Unyielding traditionalism and purism will lead to
  death
• Core of language rescue must be in community and
  families

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Seeing language as part of culture

• Issues of group membership and role of language
  in same
• Possibility of cultural continuity despite
  language shift
• Language as pre-eminent but not exclusive badge
  of ethnicity
• Important to provide support for
• cultural milieu of language

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Above all--Need for careful planning
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V. What can be done?

• Factors which contribute to minority language
  maintenance
• Vary from community to community
• Most common
• Geographical isolation
• Economic self-sufficiency
• Little intermarriage
• Strong community involvement in education

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Most common factors cont

• Strong government policies regarding language
  protection
• Sympathy from language majority population
• Presence of professional linguists to render
  assistance

Professor Juan de Dios Yapita Moya, Bolivian
linguist and Aymara speaker.
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Crystals postulates for theory of language
revitalization

• Endangered languages progress if speakers
• Increase prestige within dominant community
• Increase wealth relative to dominant community
• Increase legitimate power in eyes of dominant
  community
• Have strong presence in educational system
• Can write language down
• Can make use of electronic technology

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Akira Yamamotos factors that help maintain and
promote small languages (see pp. 143-4)
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Lynn Landweers indicators of ethnolinguistic
vitality ( p. 144 )
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Role of linguist

• Diagnosis and assessmentdetermination of
  priorities
• Description and analysiscreation of corpus
• Intervention and re-assessment
• Consideration of people, not just language
• Problems of physical danger and interference from
  opposing forcesvery political act

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Revitalization team

• Only community can ultimately save language
• Steps to take (see p. 155-6)
• Teamwork necessary

• Care to protect and not exploit ownership of
  language materials

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Recent demonstrations on Mother Tongue Day by
speakers of the Hindko language in Peshawar,
Pakistan, a population of 3,000,000 speakers as
of 1993.
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Cases of exemplary language revival

• Hebrew in Israel
• Kaurna in Australia
• Cornish in the U.K.

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Hebrew
Eliezer ben Yehudah, Jerusalem, 1921
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Kaurna
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German missionaries, Clamor Schürmann and
Christian Teichelmann, learned and described the
Kaurna language. In 1839, they published a
grammar, vocabulary of about 2,000 words, and
about 200 translated sentences.
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Cornish
Reduction of Cornish-speaking areas 1300-1750
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Types of Cornish

• Unified Cornish (1935)-- drawn from Robert
  Morton Nances first full set of grammars
  anddictionaries
• Kemmyn (1986)revisions made by Ken George
  which dealt with spelling, pronunciation and
  lexical problems--utilized by Cornish Language
  Board which has produced most language
  activitymost common today
• Late Cornish (1990) developed by Richard
  Gendall based on modern vernacular and written
  forms.

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Conclusion

• Need for linguistics departments to make language
  rescue an intrinsic part of training of students
• Need for funds to be raised and allocated
• Time is running out