This article contributes to language revitalization theory by comparing and contrasting macro- and micro-scale approaches to language revitalization. Joshua Fishman, the main theoretician of ...reversing language shift (RLS), has emphasized in his work the primacy of intergenerational transmission of the language through the home environment. This article examines the school-based Hilo, Hawai'i model and explores three areas of difference from Fishman's model.
Twenty-five languages die each year; at this pace, half the world's five thousand languages will disappear within the next century. In this timely book, Claude Hagège seeks to make clear the ...magnitude of the cultural loss represented by the crisis of language death.
By focusing on the relationship of language to culture and the world of ideas, Hagège shows how languages are themselves crucial repositories of culture; the traditions, proverbs, and knowledge of our ancestors reside in the language we use. His wide-ranging examination covers all continents and language families to uncover not only how languages die, but also how they can be revitalized-for example in the remarkable case of Hebrew. In a striking metaphor, Hagège likens languages to bonfires of social behavior that leave behind sparks even after they die; from these sparks languages can be rekindled and made to live again.
The re-vitalization of indigenous languages depends on political and legal support and the implementation of language rights depends on knowledge of vocabulary and grammar structures of the ...individual languages. Throughout the nineteenth century world, compilers of dictionaries adapted indigenous languages to match standards defined in nation-building and, thereby, enabled latent possibilities for indigenous populations to re-vitalize their languages in connection with the United Nations Year for Indigenous Peoples in 1993, and the first United Nations Decade for Indigenous Peoples, 1995-2004. This article focuses on dictionaries of the languages of the Ainu populations in the borderlands between the nation-states Japan and Russia. The main argument is that the Ainu Cultural Promotion Act promulgated in 1997 had a significant impact on the production and purpose of Ainu dictionaries. The dictionaries prior to 1997 functioned, predominantly, as records, which contributed to the increased visibility of Ainu populations inside and outside Japan in the immediate national interests of Japan, whereas the dictionaries published after 1997 are intended to enable the active use of Ainu language today. An important sub-point is that the post-1997 Ainu dictionaries rely heavily on dictionaries, word lists, and grammar books compiled before 1997, which have therefore come to support efforts to re-vitalize Ainu languages in the twenty-first century.
This article explores the mobilization dynamics of a school-based minority language revitalization initiative in the French Basque Country, known as the Ikastola Movement. Bringing the study of ...language revitalization into dialogue with social movement theory, I discuss how the solidarity of Basque language activists was influenced by state-level structures of power. Focusing on an early phase of mobilization from 1975 to 1981, I consider how political opposition to the Ikastola Movement created a series of ideological and institutional struggles for activists. I then examine how these experiences of struggle strengthened the solidarity of activists in the long run. Ultimately, I argue that the discursive and organizational solidarities mobilized by activists were crucial in allowing them to realize important political gains during the 1980s to 1990s. By way of conclusion I suggest avenues for future research on school-based revitalization movements that draw attention to the horizontal and vertical dynamics of collective action.
This paper aims to discuss the vitality and endangerment of Lalo, a Lolo-Burmese language spoken in Yunnan province in southwest China. Analysis of the data collected during the survey of the use of ...the Lalo language in Xiaowan area shows that this minority language is definitely endangered. The comparison of the use of language between Nuosu Yi areas and Lalo Yi areas indicates that the endangerment of the Lalo language is related to interruption of intergenerational mother tongue transmission within families and dwindling use of Lalo in the domains of education, media and work. The following five suggestions are proposed for further discussion on preservation and revitalization of the Lalo language: (1) the Lalo language preservation and revitalization programs could be combined with protection of the intangible heritage in Lalo-speaking areas; (2) the Lalo language needs to be comprehensively documented and systematically researched; (3) language teaching and learning materials as well as resources about Lalo culture should be provided using a newly-developed orthography; (4) multilingualism and cultural diversity should be the principle of language development in Lalo-speaking areas; and (5) the preservation and revitalization of Lalo language could be promoted with appropriate policies and adequate financial support as well as widespread support of all parties concerned, especially the speech communities themselves.
This paper provides a description of the developing verb morphology of 13 children enrolled in the Cherokee Nation kindergarten immersion program as documented on the Cherokee Kindergarten Immersion ...Language Assessment. An obligatory occasion analysis of kindergartners' production of third person singular and plural present continuous verbs indicates that although children were beginning to apply rules for verb morphology, they were limited in their ability to accurately convey everyday actions of others. The findings concur with research conducted in other immersion settings which suggests that language present in typical immersion classrooms is not always optimal for the attainment of high levels of proficiency, and points to the need for further professional development for teachers in form-focused instruction and a culturally based approach to understanding Cherokee linguistics. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
The development of terminology features heavily in language planning, and here the differences between planned and ethnic languages are much less pronounced. This is especially the case in languages ...with smaller numbers of speakers, or in indigenous and endangered languages such as Te Reo Māori of Aotearoa New Zealand that rely on language planning for their survival, and where conscious terminology planning is therefore commonplace. The present article compares the terminological principles that are applied in the creation of new terms in Te Reo Māori and the planned language Esperanto. Different preferences for endogenous versus exogenous ways of developing new words generate conflict in both language communities as they adapt to the demands of functioning in modern and international arenas. Long-term success in terminological planning can only be achieved by more comprehensive application of principles from terminological science to maximize the adequacy of the generated terms and their acceptance within the speech communities.
Two of the most important social policy agendas of the Welsh state in the contemporary period are the attempt to revitalize the Welsh language – through the promotion of Welsh medium education, in ...particular – and the effort to eliminate regional inequality and poverty – most recently, through the government’s Communities First programme. This article recounts the history of a cool and sometimes fractious relationship between a Welsh medium secondary school and a low income, Communities First neighbourhood in the south Wales valleys, in order to highlight some limitations in each of these agendas, and the problems that can arise when these agendas have not been fully integrated. The disconnection between the projects of language revitalization and neighbourhood regeneration may be seen as a local manifestation of a more general split, in Wales as elsewhere today, between what Nancy Fraser calls a ‘politics of recognition’ and a ‘politics of redistribution’.
The labels used to name, classify, and analyze language varieties and competencies construct realities that enable or disable the (re)acquisition of those languages and the empowerment of their ...speakers. Focusing on Indigenous American languages, I first consider the classificatory schemas used to assign linguistic vitality hierarchies. I then examine parallel discourses of linguistic "dysfluency" (
Meek, 2011
)and disinterest often assigned to younger members of Indigenous speech communities. Expanding upon Ramanathan's (2010, 2013) notion of dis-citizenship, I argue that linguistic naming and classification, while foregrounding important issues of endangerment, can create a logic whereby threatened languages are viewed as "dis-citizens" in the world of languages-incomplete, non-normative, and disabled-potentially undermining revitalization efforts. Drawing on comparative ethnographic research on Native American language loss and reclamation, I explore the ways in which Indigenous communities are interrupting these discourses. I conclude with the implications for language rights.
