‘Stop, Revive, Survive’
This chapter introduces revivalistics, a new trans-disciplinary field of enquiry, and explores lessons from Israeli that are applicable to the reclamation and empowerment of Aboriginal languages in Australia and elsewhere. Any language reawakening should involve a long period of thoroughly observing, carefully listening to the language custodians, and learning, mapping and characterizing the specific Indigenous community. Only then can one inspire and assist. That said, this chapter proposes that there are linguistic constraints (as seen in the Hebrew reclamation) applicable to all revival attempts. Mastering them would be useful to endangered languages, particularly to Indigenous linguistic revival. The chapter introduces a practical tool: the quadrilateral Language Revival Diamond (LARD), featuring language owners, linguistics, education, and the public sphere. Each of these four core quadrants is necessary in reviving any language.