Language Death
Language Death

Author: David Crystal

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2002-04-29

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 9780521012713

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The rapid endangerment and death of many minority languages across the world is a matter of widespread concern, not only among linguists and anthropologists but among all concerned with issues of cultural identity in an increasingly globalized culture. By some counts, only 600 of the 6,000 or so languages in the world are 'safe' from the threat of extinction. A leading commentator and popular writer on language issues, David Crystal asks the fundamental question, 'Why is language death so important?', reviews the reasons for the current crisis, and investigates what is being done to reduce its impact. This 2002 book contains not only intelligent argument, but moving descriptions of the decline and demise of particular languages, and practical advice for anyone interested in pursuing the subject further.

Defying Maliseet Language Death
Defying Maliseet Language Death

Author: Bernard C. Perley

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 2011-11-01

Total Pages: 286

ISBN-13: 0803266804

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Published through the Recovering Languages and Literacies of the Americas initiative, supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Today, indigenous communities throughout North America are grappling with the dual issues of language loss and revitalization. While many communities are making efforts to bring their traditional languages back through educational programs, for some communities these efforts are not enough or have come too late to stem the tide of language death, which occurs when there are no remaining fluent speakers and the language is no longer used in regular communication. The Maliseet language, as spoken in the Tobique First Nation of New Brunswick, Canada, is one such endangered language that will either be revitalized and survive or will die off. Defying Maliseet Language Death is an ethnographic study by Bernard C. Perley, a member of this First Nation, that examines the role of the Maliseet language and its survival in Maliseet identity processes. Perley examines what is being done to keep the Maliseet language alive, who is actively involved in these processes, and how these two factors combine to promote Maliseet language survival. He also explores questions of identity, asking the important question: “If Maliseet is no longer spoken, are we still Maliseet?” This timely volume joins the dual issues of language survival and indigenous identity to present a unique perspective on the place of language within culture.

Language Death
Language Death

Author: Matthias Brenzinger

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2012-10-25

Total Pages: 456

ISBN-13: 3110870606

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CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE SOCIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE brings to students, researchers and practitioners in all of the social and language-related sciences carefully selected book-length publications dealing with sociolinguistic theory, methods, findings and applications. It approaches the study of language in society in its broadest sense, as a truly international and interdisciplinary field in which various approaches, theoretical and empirical, supplement and complement each other. The series invites the attention of linguists, language teachers of all interests, sociologists, political scientists, anthropologists, historians etc. to the development of the sociology of language.

When Languages Die
When Languages Die

Author: K. David Harrison

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 0195372069

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It is commonly agreed by linguists and anthropologists that the majority of languages spoken now around the globe will likely disappear within our lifetime. This text focuses on the question: what is lost when a language dies?

A Death in the Rainforest
A Death in the Rainforest

Author: Don Kulick

Publisher: Algonquin Books

Published: 2019-06-18

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 1616209046

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“Perhaps the finest and most profound account of ethnographic fieldwork and discovery that has ever entered the anthropological literature.” —The Wall Street Journal “If you want to experience a profoundly different culture without the exhausting travel (to say nothing of the cost), this is an excellent choice.” —The Washington Post As a young anthropologist, Don Kulick went to the tiny village of Gapun in New Guinea to document the death of the native language, Tayap. He arrived knowing that you can’t study a language without understanding the daily lives of the people who speak it: how they talk to their children, how they argue, how they gossip, how they joke. Over the course of thirty years, he returned again and again to document Tayap before it disappeared entirely, and he found himself inexorably drawn into their world, and implicated in their destiny. Kulick wanted to tell the story of Gapuners—one that went beyond the particulars and uses of their language—that took full stock of their vanishing culture. This book takes us inside the village as he came to know it, revealing what it is like to live in a difficult-to-get-to village of two hundred people, carved out like a cleft in the middle of a tropical rainforest. But A Death in the Rainforest is also an illuminating look at the impact of Western culture on the farthest reaches of the globe and the story of why this anthropologist realized finally that he had to give up his study of this language and this village. An engaging, deeply perceptive, and brilliant interrogation of what it means to study a culture, A Death in the Rainforest takes readers into a world that endures in the face of massive changes, one that is on the verge of disappearing forever.

Language Death in the Isle of Man
Language Death in the Isle of Man

Author: George Broderick

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2011-05-02

Total Pages: 317

ISBN-13: 3110911418

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Language death is an aspect of language contact which has occupied the interest of linguists from the past twenty-five years or so. Although the phenomenon of language death is occuring all over the world very few instances of it have been dealt with both from a sociolinguistic and formal linguistic standpoint. Those that spring to mind are the works of Nancy Dorian on East Sutherland Gaelic and Hans-Jürgen Sasse on the Albanian dialect of Arvanítika in Greece. In both instances it is dialects of languages that are treated and not complete languages themselves. The study of language death in the Isle of Man deals with the decline and extinction of Manx Gaelic as a community language, and as a language in its own right. After setting the scenario of language death this study then looks into the sociolinguistic reasons which led to the decline and death of Manx in Man. There then follows a detailed look into the study of language and language use in Man, from early observations to the present day. This section includes a detailed description of phonetic and sound recordings made of Manx over the period. This leads to an in-depth study into the formal linguistic situation of Manx, tracing the development in its phonology, morphophonology, morphology, morphosyntax and syntax, idiom and lexicon, which ultimately led to its demise. As language revival is in itself a facet of language death, the study concludes with a short excursus into the various efforts at language revival and maintenance in Man, from the latter part of the 19th century to the present day. The appendices include Professor Carl Marstrander's diary of his visits to Man (1929-33) published for the first time. The diary contains percipient observations of the state of Manx in its final phase. In short, this study looks in some detail into the mechanics of language death on a once thriving and vibrant community language.

Language Decline and Death in Africa
Language Decline and Death in Africa

Author: Herman Batibo

Publisher: Multilingual Matters

Published: 2005-01-01

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13: 9781853598081

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The aim of this book is to inform both scholars and the public about the nature and extent of the problem of language decline and death in Africa. It resourcefully traces the main causes and circumstances of language endangerment, the processes and extent of language shift and death, and the consequences of language loss to the continent's rich linguistic and cultural heritage. The book outlines some of the challenges that have emerged out of the situation.

Language Death and Language Maintenance
Language Death and Language Maintenance

Author: Mark Janse

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2003-03-13

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 9027275297

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Languages are dying at an alarming rate all over the world. Estimates range from 50% to as much as 90% by the end of the century. This collection of original papers tries to strike a balance between theoretical, practical and descriptive approaches to language death and language maintenance. It provides overviews of language endangerment in Africa, Eurasia, and the Greater Pacific Area. It also presents case studies of endangered languages from various language families. These descriptive case studies not only provide data on the degree of endangerment and the causes of language death, but also provide a general sociolinguistic and typological characterization the language(s) under discussion and the prospects of language maintenance (if any). The volume will be of interest to all those concerned with the ongoing extinction of the world’s linguistic diversity.

Language Endangerment and Language Revitalization
Language Endangerment and Language Revitalization

Author: Tasaku Tsunoda

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2013-02-06

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 3110896583

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In almost every part of the world, minority languages are threatened with extinction. At the same time, dedicated efforts are being made to document endangered languages, to maintain them, and even to revive once-extinct languages. The present volume examines a wide range of issues that concern language endangerment andlanguage revitalization. Among other things, it is shown that languages may be endangered to different degrees, endangerment situations in selected areas of the world are surveyed and definitions of language death and types of language death presented. The book also examines causes of language endangerment, speech behaviour in a language endangerment situation, structural changes in endangered languages, as well as types of speakers encountered in a language endangerment situation. In addition, methods of documentation and of training for linguists are proposed which will enable scholars to play an active role in the documentation of endangered languages and in language revitalization. The book presents a comprehensive overview of the field. It is clearly written and contains ample references to the relevant literature, thus providing useful guidance for further research. The author often draws on his own experience of documenting endangered languages and of language revival activities in Australia. The volume is of interest to a wide readership, including linguists, anthropologists, sociologists, and educators.