Faced with an increasing number of speakers abandoning the use of the world’s minoritised languages, this thesis investigates two language communities by observing the linguistic practices and ...attitudes that characterise them to inform future efforts of language support. Taking Emilian and Esperanto as two comparable minoritised languages, data from the two communities are collected to reveal the key similarities and differences across them. While Esperanto boasts a thriving number of speakers, Emilian is thought to be rapidly declining. Likewise, the academic literature on Esperanto is both thorough and current, whereas, when it comes to its sociolinguistic landscape, the literature on Emilian is virtually non-existent. This thesis builds on the existing knowledge on Esperanto and lays the foundations for our understanding of the linguistic practices and attitudes in the Emilian community. In an attempt to provide a broad overview, research questions are open-ended and their aims are threefold: (i) to gauge linguistic practices comparatively; (ii) to deduce key factors in the maintenance of Esperanto in order to inform efforts for language support for Emilian; and (iii) to reveal the usefulness of a framework of interconnectedness in contexts of language endangerment. Adopting a published paper format, this thesis contains five self-contained journal articles: one of theoretical nature where the triangulation model designed to observe language attitudes is presented, and four of empirical content where analyses and findings are discussed to answer research questions. Following a triangulation of methods and of results, in this thesis I conclude that: (i) a positive correlation exists between language attitudes and language maintenance in both communities; (ii) Esperanto is being maintained in all domains investigated while Emilian is only meaningfully used in the local, physical environment; (iii) to successfully achieve language maintenance a balance of positive attitudes, competence, and use must be restored; and (iv) the concept of interconnectedness can serve as a practical strategy to foster reconnection with both language and green space.
This article shows how the semiotics of a language, that is, what a language signifies, is a negotiated process observable by following online debates. Indeed, the adoption of new media seems to ...instigate, if not intensify and revitalize, these debates. I analyze an electronically mediated discussion group stating its goals as the maintenance, revitalization and standardization of Ladino (Judeo-Spanish). Employing theories from linguistic anthropology, I show how language ideologies map out the boundaries of what I call “Ladinoland” by insisting on particular meanings of Ladino. Group members assign the language these meanings through debates about Ladino’s glottonym, recursive boundary marking between Ladino native and novice users, and erasures of linguistic elements perceived to be non-standard.
Arapaho is now an endangered language spoken by less than 200 people (see Cowell and Moss 2008 for a grammar). It is well known that in situations of language shift and loss, an endangered language ...can undergo obsolescence effects, resulting in variable speaker competencies even among native speakers (Dorian 1989). Even without language loss, an individual's speech production can also be negatively affected by a wide range of physiological or sociological issues, from strokes and aphasia to dementia. The frequency of these conditions increases with age, and this issue is especially prominent in endangered language situations, where most or all speakers are typically older adults. In studying and describing such languages, it is highly desirable to be able to identify fully competent native speakers. This study is based on two digital databases. The first database consists of over 40,000 lines of natural discourse (primarily video documentation), all of which has been time-aligned in ELAN, exported to Toolbox and interlinearized and annotated, and subsequently reimported to ELAN.
Attempts to describe language competition and extinction in a mathematical way have enjoyed increased popularity recently. In this paper I review recent modeling approaches and, based on these ...findings, propose a model of reaction-diffusion type. I analyze the dynamics of interactions of a population with two monolingual groups and a group that is bilingual in these two languages. The results show that demographic factors, such as population growth or population dispersal, play an important role in the competition dynamic. Furthermore, I consider the impact of two strategies for language maintenance: adjusting the status of the endangered language and adjusting the availability of monolingual and bilingual educational resources.
Drawing from synchronic natural data, this paper canvasses complement clause constructions (CCC) of Nkami, an endangered Kwa language of Ghana. It raises issues that are of general concern in ...complementation, syntax, typology and grammaticalization. Among other things, it comes out that unlike other Kwa languages which have only one explicit complementizer, Nkami has two clearly distinct functional complementizers, yɛɛ and bɛɛ. While the former patterns with utterance verbs, the latter collocates with all other complement-taking verbs (CTV). Also, both yɛɛ and bɛɛ perform several other grammatical functions and are diachronically traceable to the verbs yɛɛ 'say' and dʒi bɛ/bɛɛ 'be like', respectively. Moreover, the CTVs in Nkami may be categorized into five semantic types: utterance/speaking, sensation, emotion, cognition/thinking and secondary (concept) verbs including ʃɛ asɪ 'begin', bɔ 'plan/try/pretend', sɛ 'require' and kpa 'want'. Lastly, Nkami predominantly demonstrates the sentence-like type of complement clause; and so, except for CCCs that contain a secondary (concept) verb as a CTV, a complement clause in Nkami is virtually open to all morphosyntactic and grammatical 'privileges' available to a main clause.
The series publishes state-of-the-art work on core areas of linguistics across theoretical frameworks as well as studies that provide new insights by building bridges to neighbouring fields such as ...neuroscience and cognitive science. The series considers itself a forum for cutting-edge research based on solid empirical data on language in its various manifestations, including sign languages. It regards linguistic variation in its synchronic and diachronic dimensions as well as in its social contexts as important sources of insight for a better understanding of the design of linguistic systems and the ecology and evolution of language.
Mako ISO 639-3: wpc, a Sáliban language spoken along the Ventuari River in the Venezuelan Amazon, has been variably reported as (critically) endangered and threatened. These reports, however, are ...based on second-hand information and/or self-reported census data. In this article, I present a vitality assessment of Mako that relies on first-hand fieldwork data from 20 communities in the Middle Ventuari River area. The analysis of the data--collected through interviews, community censuses, and participant observation between 2012 and 2014--shows that the situation is not as dire as previously reported and that the language is very vital in its local context. I also show that the place of Mako in the regional and national contexts put it in a vulnerable position and that steps should be taken to ensure its presence in new domains of use. Methodologically, I show the importance--and argue in favor--of including data from long-term participant observation in analyses and reports of linguistic vitality because of the access this methodology provides to tacit knowledge about language use and attitudes. This work thus contributes both to our understanding of language vitality among the Mako communities and to discussions of best practices in language vitality assessments.
Turoyo Neo-Aramaic in northern New Jersey Weaver, Christina Michelle; Kiraz, George A.
International journal of the sociology of language,
1/2016, Letnik:
2016, Številka:
237
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Turoyo, an endangered Neo-Aramaic language that originated in the area of Tur Abdin in southeastern Turkey and had not been written prior to this century, is spoken today by around 50,000 people ...scattered worldwide. Spurred on by persecution, Turoyo-speaking immigrants began to arrive in the US as early as the late 1890s. We focus our study on a northern New Jersey community in which Turoyo is spoken. This tight-knit community, whose religious and social center is the Mor Gabriel Syriac Orthodox Church, is made up of around 200 families. The community is working hard to pass the language on to their children through speaking Turoyo in the home and in church, and also through programs including a specially created Sunday school curriculum, a weekly Aramaic school, and a summer day camp. However, despite the community’s best efforts, language shift is taking place. We use a sociolinguistic approach involving sociolinguistic methods and interviews to show that family, social networks, and religion influence who is most likely to be a proficient speaker of Turoyo in this community, but that identity is the one sociolinguistic variable that can best account for the variety of cases in which language shift is taking place.
Language shift is the process by which a speech community in a contact situation gradually abandons one language in favor of another. Because the causal factors of language shift are largely social ...(Fishman 1991), languages, groups, and communities with diverse social situations can be expected to exhibit varying levels of language shift. This paper reports on the linguistic vitality of Miqie ISO 639-3:yiq, an endangered Central Ngwi/Yi language of Yunnan, China, and identifies the social factors contributing to language shift. Findings from participant interviews in 11 village survey points show there are varying degrees of language endangerment, with intermarriage and access to a major road as primary indicators of shift. This paper evaluates different tools for assessing linguistic vitality and uses the Language Endangerment Index (Lee & Van Way in press) to assess Miqie language endangerment at the village level. Language shift information is essential in the description and documentation of a language, especially because the contexts in which the language is spoken may disappear faster than the language itself.
What does a scholar of endangered languages and the sociology of language write to his own people in their language? A review of Joshua (Shikl) Fishman’s column in the Yiddish quarterly
from ...1982–2002 reveals the repeated theme of urging his secular Yiddish readers to establish residential enclaves of young families who speak Yiddish with their children. He shared his knowledge of the language revitalization and standardization efforts of other groups, including ultra-Orthodox Hasidim, Frieslanders, Irish, Norwegians, and Welsh. These heartfelt pleas reflected his own bereavement following the decimation of the East European Yiddish heartland during the Holocaust and the disappearance of a vibrant Yiddish secular life in America. Nevertheless, Fishman applauded and supported the efforts of young people aimed at revitalizing Yiddish.
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