Language Maintenance

1. LanguageMaintenance LING 345/640G Yuko Otsuka

2. Potentially endangered Endangered Seriously endangered Moribund Extinct (Wurm 1998) Language Loss

3. Potentially Endangered • Socially and economically disadvantaged • Under heavy pressure from a larger language • Beginning to lose child speakers

4. EndangeredLanguages • Few or no children learning the language • The youngest good speakers are young adults.

5. Seriously endangered Moribund Extinct The youngest good speakers age 50 or older And Toward Extinction • Only a handful of good speakers • No speaker

6. Language Loss • Factors leading to language loss • Death of speakers • Social • Cultural • Economic • Political

7. Death of Speakers • Natural disasters • Famine and drought • Diseases • Genocides

8. Social Factors • Young men moving to urban center • Intermarriage • Aging population in the community

9. Cultural Factors • Cultural contact affects language attitude • Culturally more aggressive dominant language • Religion • Modern metropolitan culture • Technology

10. Economic Factors • Economic advantage associated with dominant language • Job opportunity • Material wealth

11. Political Factors • Political influences • Conquest • Language policy: official language • Recommendations and laws • Assimilatory education

12. Language Shift • Forced language shift • Voluntary language shift Language shift Language loss

13. Why Should We Care? • Loss of a language is a loss of a culture “Every language reflects a unique world-view and culture complex” (Wurm 1991) • Any other reasons?

14. Incentives to Speak Indigenous Languages • Secret language that their oppressors cannot speak • Rallying symbol of a political and/or cultural movement • Self- and Group identity • Any other incentives?

15. Documentation and archivization Intergenerational transmission Vernacularization Changing the society Language Use Not only traditional, but also modern context Not only in the classroom, but outside the classroom Preventing Language Loss