Module 16 Flashcards
Language Diversity
-There are about 6000-7000 languages in use today, depending on who you ask and how they determine what counts as a language
~About a quarter of these languages has 1000 speakers or less
~Some of these languages have only one or two speakers
*Typically elderly speakers
-The world’s languages have been reduced by half in the last 500 years
~Between 1490 and 1990 about half of the world’s languages became obsolete
-Anywhere from 50-90% of the languages currently spoken are expected to be EXTINCT within the next hundred years
Disappearing Languages
-Around 90% of the world’s population speaks the 100 most-used languages
-Around 6000 languages are spoken by 10% of the people on earth
-There are around 6000 languages that are ‘safe’ by speakers population standards (100,000 speakers or more)
-There are thousands of languages over the verge of extinction
-All parts of the world are affected by language endangerment
~In Central America, 17% of languages (50/300) are no longer viable
~In South America, 27% of languages are no longer viable (110/400)
*The intense loss of languages in South America- “probably the result of the near total elimination of the native population.”
~In Australia, 90% of the estimated 250 aboriginal languages near extinction
*Australian Aboriginal languages are dying at the rate of one or more per year
~Africa and Asia have high numbers of living languages
*But many languages are endangered
**Nigeria has over 500 living languages, but ~30 are near extinction
~Papua New Guinea is the country with the most living languages (839)
*But ~90 of those are endangered
American Languages
-There are ~175 living indigenous languages in the US
~Down from >300 prior to contact with Europeans
-More then 1/2 of these have less that 100 speakers
-More than 1/2 of all speakers are >50 years old
-In the United States and Canada, 80% of the indigenous languages are no longer being learned by children
-Only 5 of the indigenous languages spoken in the US have as many as 10000 to 20,000 speakers and only 2 have as many as 40,000 to 50,000
~Navajo is the only indigenous language with more than 100,000 speakers
*But even Navajo is dwindling. Fewer children are learning Navajo as a first language
*Revitalization efforts are underway
Language Death and Loss
-When a language is no longer used by any community of speakers
-The leading cause of language loss is interruption of transmission
~The language is no longer acquired by children as a native language
~No new speakers are acquiring the language
*In many cases, no new speakers are learning the language either
~Only elderly speakers remain-when these speakers die, so do their languages
-Sometimes a population of speakers might disappear to
~War/Genocide
*The extinction of Ubykh is the result of genocide of the Ubykh people, who until 1864 lived along the eastern shore of the Black Sea in the area of Sochi (northwest of Abkhazia)
*Sulung speakers (India) have been nearly wiped out due to warfare with neighboring tribes
~Natural disasters
*Speakers of Warapu and Sissano (Papua New Guinea) were almost entirely wiped out in a tsunami
~Transmission of disease
*Many indigenous groups in the Americas were unable to fight off infections brought by Jesuit missionaries
-Having a small population of speakers doesn’t necessarily mean a language is going to go extinct
-To remain viable, a language must continue to be used consistently within a community
-One of the main reasons languages are lost is because they are given up or forcibly eliminated (or a combination of both) in favor of more “dominant” language
-In this sense, interruption of language transmission that leads to language death is typically associated with LANGUAGE CONTACT
Language shift
-When a population that historically spoken one language stops using that languages in favor of another
~The replacement of one language by another as the primary language in a community
~It is almost always the case that populations shift from a substratum (socially subordinate) language to a superstratum (socially dominant)
language- not the other way around
~Cultural and linguistic homogenization is a common effect of colonization and globalization
-Why do communities shift languages?
~Sometiems language shift is overtly forced
*Punishment
**1932 El Salvador: 25,000 indigenous people killed, People stopped speaking indigenous languages to avoid being killed.
**Boarding schools in US and Canada punished students for speaking indigenous languages
*Ostracization
**Kenyan written Ngiigi Wa Thiong’o’s decision to write in his native language, Gikuyu, resulted in his imprisonment and eventual exile
*Educational and political policies that make it challenging to use the substratum language
**2002, Page, AZ: RD’s Drive-In fired two workers because they refused to sign a company policy that they would speak only English while on the job
**2012, Lake Powell, AZ: Dine woman fired for speaking Navajo http://navajotimes.com/news/2012/0512/051012fir.php
~Sometimes pressure to shift languages is more subtle
*The community is under social or economic pressure to shift
There is often little or no institutional support for non-dominant languages
**Not taught in school, or used in media, politics
**Speakers use the dominant language to assimilate to a new culture
**Using the dominant language provides socioeconomic advantages
**Convenience, job opportunities, marriageability, etc…
-As a language stops being used in favor of a more dominant language, fewer and fewer people speak it, and those people who do speak it have fewer and fewer people to talk to
~Remember, you can’t learn or use a language if you’re not exposed to it
-As a result, whole generations of people grow up not being exposed to and not learning their ‘heritage’ languages
~Soon only elderly speak the heritage language
*Eventually they die out
-Some languages are very widespread and often ‘dominate’ other languages
~English
~Spanish
~Mandarin
~Hindi
~Bengali
~Porugese
~Russian
*Not because they are better language, but because of the social status they are afforded
*Sometimes called “killer languages”
-Not all language contact scenarios lead to language shift
~Some languages resist extinction and continue to be used despite the forces of globalization and language oppression
Language Mantenance
-Continuing use of a language despite competition from a regionally and socially more powerful language
-Factors that influence language maintenance
~Size of the population
Maintenance is easier in larger populations- more people using the language
~Strong cultural affiliation with the language
Cases of endogamy/ exogamy where speaking a separate language is central to cultural practices
~Intensive inner-community support of a language
*Cases where communities offer language support (use of language in school or media) for substratum language
-Factors that influence language maintenance
~Isolation/ segregation
*More maintenance in segregated communities
**Social or geographic isolation can play a role
**Consider the case of Traditional New Mexican Spanish
**New Mexico relatively rural and isolated up until late 1800s early 1900s
**Early 1900s until today: influx of English and Mexican Spanish
***Decline in Traditional New Mexican Spanish in modern New Mexico
~Other social dynamics of speakers’ lives
*Consider the following factors which influence whether speakers are likely to use Gaelic in east Sutherland
**Birth order: oldest siblings more likely to use Gaelic fluently, younger siblings tend towards English (perhaps due to older siblings bringing more English into the home)
**Strong attachment to grandparents (or other Gaelic-speaking member of the family)
**Temporary absence from community can lead to newly-realized language loyalty
**Inquisitive and gregarious personalities most likely to want to communicate with elders in the elders’ language
Types of language death
-Not all language that go extinct ‘die; in the same way
~Gradual death
*Takes time. Intervening period of bilingualism in the community
~Sudden death
*No intervening period of bilingualism
~Radical death
*Community chooses to stop speaking their language for reasons of survival/political oppression
~’Bottom-to-top’ death
*A language is not used except in very limited and specialized settings/functions, such as religion
Language Loss
-Why does it matter if languages are lost?
~Language loss affects every part of the world
~Languages are intricately intertwined with their cultures, and the worldview and perception of their speakers
~Loss of a language includes the loss of that culture-specific worldview
~If a language is not written, when it goes extinct, it’s almost like it never existed- completely lost to time
Language Revitalization
-In the last few decades, efforts to REVITALIZE endangered (or extinct) languages have increased
~People want to get back to their culture and heritage- language is an important part of cultural identity for many cultures
~https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr-jackHWCw
*Watch 5:30-8:15
-An important part of language revitalization is documentation and description
~If a language is documented and described, it is lass likely to be lost forever
*If there is no record of a language, once it is extinct, it’s like it never existed
Ways to document languages
- Audio recordings of speakers in various contexts
- Development of grammars and dictionaries
- Descriptive analyses of the language’s phonology, morphology, etc
- If the language does go extinct, it may be able to be revitalized in the future if it is documented
More important than documentation is encouraging actual USE of the language
-Speakers must make a determined effort to use the language
~This can be difficult when there are few speakers, and the language is not widely spoken in all domains
~Commonly, young speakers who want to learn their heritage language spend a lot of time with elderly speakers- allowing both young and old speakers to practice using the language
-Most important of all is TRANSMISSION of the language to the youth
~Creating speakers
Ways to encourage language transmission
-Parents of other fluent adults speaking to children in the heritage language
-Developing materials to help spread the language
-Creating school system centered on the language- teaching classes in the heritage language, offering language classes
~For instance, there are Cherokee schools in Oklahoma- only Cherokee is spoken at the school
~But, if the only place children are exposed to the language is school, will they maintain the language into adulthood as fluent users?
The Case of Wampanoag
-An indigenous language spoken in Massachusetts which had gone extinct
~Also called Massachusetts, Pokanoket, or Natick
~No native speakers since the mid-1800s
~In 1600s and 1700s, missionaries in the area translated documents into the Wampanoag language as part of mission to convert the tribe to Christianity
*Bibles, etc; also some legal documents
~In 1993, one Wampanoag scholar (Jessie Little Doe Baird) reached out to linguists at MIT for help in revitalizing the language using written texts
*She eventually earned her Master’s degree in Linguistics as well
-The Wampanoag community, along with linguists
~Developed a dictionary
~Developed a curriculum of second language learning for adult speakers and a Wampanoag (no English) curriculum for children
~Developed immersive summer program for youth
~Developed community language programs
~There is now as least one child being raised as a native speaker of Wampanoag- the first since the 1800s
The case of Kukama
-An endangered indigenous language spoken in the Peruvian Amazon
~Also called Cocama, Kukamiria
~There are about 20,00-25,000 Kukama people living in Peru, but there has been a major shifts from Kukama to Spanish
~Only about 1,000 of them speak the language- all elders
~Might be extinct within the next 50 years
-There have been efforts to document and revitalize the language in recent years
~Development of a trilingual dictionary (Kukama, Spanish, English)
~In April 2016, an extensive grammar of Kukamawas published (Dr. Rosa Vallejos-Yopan)
~A rap song in Kukama was created and played on radio stations
