Language Death Flashcards
How many languages are there?
Between 3,000-10,000 - enormous variation
How does Crystal define Language Death?
A Language is dead when…
- only 1 speaker left and no learners in the younger generation
What are indicators of a language’s Situation?
Population size (not always), place, attitude of community towards their culture+language, economic situation (not always), existing Language domains, material for education, governmental status
The 3 Levels of danger are…
1) safe
2) endangered
3) extinct
Why is language so important?
- Basic of people’s Culture
- means of communication
- diversity
Definition of “a language in danger”?
A situation in which the speakers no longer pass their Language onto the next geberation.
What are possible causes for language endangerment?
a. External (leading to)
b. Internal causes
Devaluation, discrimination, no social mobility, attitude of speakers towards their language, dominant languages (English as langua francae?)
What is “language replacement”?
An entire speech community shifts to another (either minority or official/trade) language.
Which is the biggest language family?
The Indo-European family is the largest group of languages (with about 2 billion speakers)
What are the main disadvantages of language loss?
Decline of linguistic diversity, loss of human and cultural diversity+identity
Who is needed to maintain a language?
Different groups of people:
- speakers
- linguistis
- language planners
- policy makers
What are the 4 types of LD involving the actual loss of a language?
- sudden LD
- radical LD
- gradual LD
- bottom-to-top LD
What is a sudden LD?
Abrupt disappearance because speakers die or are killed
What is radical LD?
Abrupt LD but speakers shift to another language, possibly due to political repression and genocide
What is gradual LD?
- Most common type
- gradual shift to the dominant language in a contact situation
What is bottom-to-top LD?
2 possible ways:
- Language is retained formal domains, but disappears from informal contexts
- Language is retained in informal, more casual contexts, but disappears from formal domain (more common)
What are the types of LD involving the gradual change of language?
- Language suicide
- Language murder
What is Language suicide?
The conscious decision to stop using the own language in order to borrow words and constructions from the closely related, more prestigious one.
– superstrate languages (decreolization)
– strong social motivation
Example: Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea
Loss of a dialect in favor of a standard
What is Language murder?
The deliberate attempt to let a language die in order to use a newer, more prestigious one (reluctance of use of traditional language, although they would be capable of using it).
What are the Factors influencing the obsolescence of Language?
- economic factors
- political factors
- ideological factors
- ecological factors
- cultural factors
What are economic factors influencing obsolescence of languages?
Another language is thought to be needed for economic survival and advantage.
What are political factors influencing the obsolescence of languages?
Asymmetrical power relations between different ethnic and social groups.
What are the ideological factors influencing obsolescence of languages?
Assumed belief systems and underlying values about language use and diversity.
What are ecological factors influencing the obsolescence of languages?
Catastrophic natural causes, geographical Location, physical environment, population demographics, Numbers and concentration of speakers, proximity to other groups
What are cultural factors influencing the obsolescence of languages?
- Open vs. Closed (Levels of contact to Outside World)
- endocentric vs. exocentric (degree to which the Community is focused on internal norms, or more outwardly focus)
- multidimensional set of Social conditions
What is cultural assimilation?
One Culture is influenced by a more dominant culture, and begins to lose its character as a result of its members adopting new behavior and mores.
What are the 3 Stages of culture assimilation?
1) pressure on People to speak the dominant language (top-down or Button-up)
2) Period of emerging bilingualism (dominant vs. dominated language)
3) younger generation becomes increasingly proficient in the dominant language
What are the 6 factors of Language revitalization?
Increase:
- prestige
- wealth
- legitimate power
- presence in education
- writing system
- use of electronic technology
What is Language Planning?
1) Corpus Planning
2) Status Planning
What are the 3 orientations towards language policy?
Language as…
1) a problem
2) a right
3) a resource
Why can language suicide be Seen as a Synonym for decreolization?
Because less prestigious language borrows and absorbs from the socially superior neighbour language, so that the two become indistinguishable.
What is an acrolect?
A superstrate language
What is a basilect?
A creole language
What is a mesolect?
The in-between (between acrolect and basilect) varieties
How is double negation performed in an OE and PdE sentence?
OE: With weakening no to ne procliticized to the finite verb (or aux) and a second negator na in the SpecNegP, where it has a fixed spot.
PdE: I don’t need no satisfaction (in AAVE), or I don’t need anything (non-assertive forms)
What is the common theory of projections in OE double (sentential) negation?
CP - FP - NegP - TP - VP
Why does OE negation (in principle and parameters framework of UG) serve as a word order diagnostic?
Because na has a fixed position in SpecNegP and ne appears mostly cliticized to the finite verb.
What is “backward globalization” in farming?
Giving local people control over their lands because it would result in a powerful and sustainable economic and cultural increase and diversity if they would contribute to the economic market with their knowledge.
- doing it “their way” bc they might produce the same on a longer period of time
Why is it critical to lock minorities up in order to maintain their language and culture?
Because they might feel imprisoned and want to adapt to the dominant society to form part of the state’s identity.
Why is language death often caused in contact situations?
Because often a dominant culture and a inferior culture develop and except for all the speakers’ death, they have to communicate with the medium of language, so they shift or are forced to switch languages
What is diglossia?
A situation in which two dialects or languages are used by a single language community with the definition a of low and a high variety.
What is a high variety?
The high variety is a language or dialect spoken in formal domains and education.
What is a low variety?
A low variety is a language or dialect spoken in informal domains, an example is vernacular
What is an example for a diglossia situation?
Swiss German and the many dialects there are
