Topic 6: Language shift and language death

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Topic 6 Language shift and language death

• Holmes Chapter 3
• Key concepts
• Language shift
• Language death
• Language revival
• Language vitality
• Language maintenance

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Language shift

• A community shifts from using one language for
  most purposes to using a different one
• One language replaces the roles and functions of
  another language in a community
• A strong language becomes weak a weak language
  becomes strong in a community

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Direction of language shifts

• Whose language would be stronger?
• seller ------------- buyer
• minority ------------- majority
• poor --------------- wealthy
• low social status ---------high social status
• ruled -------------- ruler

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Factors contributing to language shift

• Economic factor
• Seller ------------- buyer
• Demographic factor
• Minority ------------- majority
• Social factor
• Poor --------------- wealthy
• Low social status ---------high social status
• Political factor
• Ruled -------------- ruler

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What factor(s) account(s) for the following
movements of languages in HK?

• 1) PTH has become more important in HK after 1997
  (political factor)
• 2) PTH has become a more important language than
  English for people working in the retailing
  industry (economic factor)
• 3) Cantonese has replaced some major functions of
  English in HK in the past decades e.g. a) the
  language of the government b) the language of HK
  Legislative Council c) the medium of instruction
  in secondary schools.
• (political and demographic factors)

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• 4) The Filipinos are the biggest group of foreign
  population in HK (2.1) but their language is not
  as popular as that of the British which make up
  only 0.3 of the HK population in 2001. (social
  factor)
• 5) The HK population using other Chinese dialects
  as a usual language has decreased from 7 in 1991
  to 5.5 in 2001. (social and demographic factors)

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Language Death

• How can a language die?
• 1) when all the people who speak that language
  die
• 2) when the domains in which a language is used
  are totally replaced by another language
• 3) when a language is suppressed by a political
  power
• Which is more likely to die, a standard language
  or a dialect?

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Language revival/ revitalization

• What brings dead/dying languages back
• to life?
• New Zealand Maori (cultural crisis)
• Israel Hebrew (nationalism)
• Taiwan Taiwanese (political independence)
• Wales Welsh (cultural identity)
• Who brings dead/dying languages back to life?
• Acceptance by Institutions (i.e. government,
  university, church, media etc.)
• Acceptance by people

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Ethnolinguistic Vitality

• Ethno different ethnic groups
• Ethnolinguistic different ethnic groups
  speaking different languages
• Vitality strength

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Three factors to assess ethnolinguistic vitality

• Howard Giles
• Social status of the speakers
• Demographic strength
• Institutional support

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Ethnolinguistic Vitality

• Giles et al (1977309) suggest three main factors
  in assessing the vitality of different
  ethnolinguistic groups viz. Status, Demographic
  Strength and Institutional Support. The Status
  variable is about the prestige of the target
  linguistic group. The Demographic variables are
  related to the number of members in a linguistic
  group and their distribution in the territory.
  Lastly, Institutional Support refers to the
  degree to which a language is used in various
  institutions e.g. the government, church,
  schools, media. Giless theory was devised to
  examine the interrelationship between different
  ethnolinguistic groups in a multi-racial society.

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Language vitality

• A language will last long and remain strong
• in a community if
• The social status of the target language speakers
  remains high
• The number of people using the target language
  remains large
• Institutional support to the target language
  remains high.

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How can a minority language be maintained?

• If a language is an important identity marker
• If a minority group is cohesive (e.g. China
  Town)
• If a minority group keeps close contact with the
  homeland
• If a minority language gets institutional support