Many linguists believe that the revitalization
of moribund languages, where there may only be a handful of
elderly fluent speakers left, is a noble – if perhaps
nearly impossible – ideal for native communities involved
in such work. Even more challenging is the reintroduction of
a long-dead language such as the South Australian language Kaurna
(pronounced [ga:na]), spoken on the Adelaide plains
until the last native speaker, Ivaritji (a.k.a. Amelia Taylor),
died in 1929. Rob Amery challenges the standards by which language
revitalization programs are judged as successful, while giving
us a step-by-step method for the reintroduction and revalorization
of an extinct native tongue, which he calls the Formulaic Method.
This detailed case study of what is, after all, just the beginning
stages of Kaurna language revival will be of interest not just
to linguists involved in the field, but especially to community
members and other nonspecialists who are somehow connected with
lesser-used languages and language revival efforts. Amery's
work is also an important contribution to the emerging field
of ecological linguistics and its application to language
planning.
Speaker legitimacy in contexts of minority language revitalization: a case study of attitudinal responses towards varieties of Basque
