1. THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE DEATH
Summary of David Crystal (2000). Language death. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dr. Alicia Pousada 2007

2. I. What is language death?
The language pool
The size of the problem
Levels of danger

3. 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

4. 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

5. Factors which change the people’s culture
Cultural assimilation
Military dominance
Urbanization
Media
Bilingualism
Opposition

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. Australian aborigines 1910

10. Australian “lost generation” (1912-1969)

11. Cootamundra Aboriginal Girls Training Home

12. IV. Where do we begin?

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

14. Language protests in India

15. Fostering positive community attitudes
Negative attitudes very common among small language speakers
Need to understand reasons for these

16. Vital to deal with basic physical needs of people before language issues

17. Role of outsiders
Outsiders have important role in seeing more objectively the language issues and bringing linguistic expertise—also training native linguists

18. 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

19. 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 influences—if not, younger generations won’t continue to use it
Unyielding traditionalism and purism will lead to death
Core of language rescue must be in community and families

20. 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

21. Above all-- Need for careful planning

22. 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

23. 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.

24. Crystal’s 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

25. Akira Yamamoto’s factors that help maintain and promote small languages (see pp. 143-4)

26. Lynn Landweer’s indicators of ethnolinguistic vitality ( p. 144 )

27. Role of linguist Diagnosis and assessment—determination of priorities
Description and analysis—creation of corpus
Intervention and re-assessment
Consideration of people, not just language
Problems of physical danger and interference from opposing forces—very political act

28. Revitalization team
Only community can ultimately save language
Steps to take (see p )
Teamwork necessary
Care to protect and not exploit ownership of language materials

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

30. Cases of exemplary language revival
Hebrew in Israel
Kaurna in Australia
Cornish in the U.K.

31. Hebrew
Eliezer ben Yehudah, Jerusalem, 1921

33. Kaurna

34. 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.

37. Reduction of Cornish-speaking areas

39. Types of Cornish
“Unified Cornish” (1935)-- drawn from Robert Morton Nance’s first full set of grammars and dictionaries
“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 activity—most common today
“Late Cornish” (1990)– developed by Richard Gendall based on modern vernacular and written forms.

41. 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