Introduction

2018 ◽  
pp. xxviii-18
Author(s):  
Lyle Campbell ◽  
Kenneth L. Rehg
Keyword(s):  
Language Revitalization ◽  
Endangered Languages ◽  
Language Documentation ◽  
Language Endangerment ◽  
Reference Volume ◽  
Endangered Language ◽  
New Findings ◽  
Comprehensive Reference

The Oxford Handbook of Endangered Languages’ purposes are (1) to provide a reasonably comprehensive reference volume for endangered languages, with the scope of the volume as a whole representing the breadth of the field; (2) to highlight both the range of thinking about language endangerment and the variety of responses to it; and (3) to broaden understanding of language endangerment, language documentation, and language revitalization, and, in so doing, to encourage and contribute to fresh thinking and new findings in support of endangered languages. This chapter introduces the thirty-nine chapters of this Handbook, which are addressed to the themes and approaches in scholarship on endangered language and to these objectives of the book. The authors introduce the criteria for determining whether a language is endangered and just how endangered it is, address the causes of language endangerment, review the reasons for why the language endangerment crisis matters, and discuss the variety of responses to it.

The Oxford Handbook of Endangered Languages

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Language Revitalization ◽  
Biocultural Diversity ◽  
Endangered Languages ◽  
Language Documentation ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Language Endangerment ◽  
Reference Volume ◽  
New Findings ◽  
Comprehensive Reference

The Oxford Handbook of Endangered Languages, in thirty-nine chapters, provides a comprehensive overview of the efforts that are being undertaken to deal with this crisis. Its purposes are (1) to provide a reasonably comprehensive reference volume, with the scope of the volume as a whole representing the breadth of the field; (2) to highlight both the range of thinking about language endangerment and the variety of responses to it; and (3) to broaden understanding of language endangerment, language documentation, and language revitalization, and, in so doing, to encourage and contribute to fresh thinking and new findings in support of endangered languages. The handbook is organized into five parts. Part I, Endangered Languages, addresses some of the fundamental issues that are essential to understanding the nature of the endangered languages crisis. Part II, Language Documentation provides an overview of the issues and activities of concern to linguists and others in their efforts to record and document endangered languages. Part III, Language Revitalization encompasses a diverse range of topics, including approaches, practices, and strategies for revitalizing endangered and sleeping (“dormant”) languages. Part IV, Endangered Languages and Biocultural Diversity, extends the discussion of language endangerment beyond its conventional boundaries to consider the interrelationship of language, culture, and environment. Part V, Looking to the Future, addresses a variety of topics that are certain to be of consequence in future efforts to document and revitalize endangered languages.

Language Documentation in Diaspora Communities

2018 ◽  
pp. 398-418
Author(s):  
Daniel Kaufman ◽  
Ross Perlin
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Urban Setting ◽  
Ex Situ ◽  
Endangered Languages ◽  
Language Documentation ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Language Endangerment ◽  
Endangered Language

Due to environmental, economic, and social factors, cities are increasingly absorbing speakers of endangered languages. In this chapter, the authors examine some of the ways that organizations can work with communities in an urban setting to further language documentation, conservation, and revitalization. They base their discussion on their experience at the Endangered Language Alliance, a non-profit organization based in New York City that facilitates collaboration between linguists, students, speakers of endangered languages, and other relevant parties. While ex-situ language documentation has not been given much attention in the literature, they argue that it has its own unique advantages and that diaspora communities need to be taken seriously, both to fully understand language endangerment and to better counteract it.

Language revitalization and community initiatives

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-254
Author(s):  
Bidisha Bhattacharjee
Keyword(s):  
Minority Groups ◽  
Language Revitalization ◽  
Endangered Languages ◽  
Language Documentation ◽  
World Language ◽  
Dominant Culture ◽  
Community Initiatives ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Endangered Language ◽  
Linguistic Communities

Abstract Language is an integral part of the social identity and ethnicity of a community apart from being its mode of communication. Language plays a key role to preserve the history, culture and identity of a community. In this era of globalization, cultural and linguistic homogenization is a common trend. The state and dominant linguistic communities expect ‘others’ or the minority groups to assimilate into the dominant culture and language. Arguments for the maintenance and revitalization of minority and endangered languages have been made by many linguists around the world. Language rights, language planning and language documentation programmes are some steps taken by government and externally-funded organizations to protect endangered and indigenous languages. Besides the initiatives taken by the non-members of the community, the future of an endangered language and culture has been decided by the role and attitude of the community towards its community-specific linguistic and cultural identity. India is a very diverse country as far as its linguistic and cultural heritage is concerned. This project is enriched with insights from field experience in various districts of West Bengal, a state in India, where the speakers of endangered linguistic communities are aware of their linguistic rights and are highly engaged in the language and cultural revitalization, and in that their degree of progress and success is commendable. This paper aims at demonstrating the major role played by the communities themselves in language-revitalization programmes.

scholarly journals Review Article

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Kruijt ◽  
Mark Turin
Keyword(s):  
Steady Increase ◽  
Endangered Languages ◽  
Language Documentation ◽  
Language Endangerment ◽  
Endangered Language ◽  
Philanthropic Organizations ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Government ◽  
Seminal Article ◽  
Research Councils

In response to a crescendo of public and scholarly interest, over the last two decades there has been a noticeable and mostly welcome surge in publications that focus on language documentation, conservation, and revitalization. Early and high impact contributions in Hale et al. (1992) included a now seminal article by Michael Krauss which called for urgent action to prevent linguistics from going down in history as the ‘only science that presided obliviously over the disappearance of 90% of the very field to which it is dedicated’ (Krauss 1992:10). There then followed a discussion on the topic by Ladefoged (1992) and a prompt reply by Dorian (1993) that situated the issue of language endangerment as one deserving of sustained academic attention. Alongside swelling bookshelves that speak to the urgency of this work, major research programs funded by private philanthropic organizations and research councils were also being established at this time. The Foundation for Endangered Languages (FEL) was founded in 1995, followed a year later by the Endangered Language Fund (ELF). With the establishment of the Dokumentation Bedrohter Sprachen program (DoBeS) in 2000, the Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project (HRELP) in 2002, and the Documenting Endangered Languages (DEL) program funded by the US government in 2005, the last two decades bear witness to a steady increase in support, funding, and visibility for the documentation and preservation of endangered languages.

Language Revitalization

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lenore A. Grenoble
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Language Revitalization ◽  
Language Documentation ◽  
Language Endangerment ◽  
Hebrew Language

Linguists have become increasingly engaged in language documentation, working to record languages while they are still spoken. Speaker communities often turn to revitalization programs, attempting to strengthen the speaker base of their ancestral languages and make them vital again. This chapter addresses the factors that enter into the decision of what kind of revitalization to pursue and then discusses different kinds of models for language revitalization. It examines revitalization as a response to language endangerment, language attitudes, language domains and social networks, the role of the external linguist, and a successful revitalization in the case of the Hebrew language.

“Will the Real Semi-Speaker Please Stand Up?” Language Vitality, Semi-Speakers, and Problems of Enumeration in the Canadian North

1969 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daria Boltokova
Keyword(s):  
Endangered Languages ◽  
Language Endangerment ◽  
Standard Methods ◽  
The Real ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Canadian North ◽  
Endangered Language ◽  
Linguistic Practices ◽  
Language Revitalisation

This article reassesses categories used in language revitalisation efforts and critiques some enumeration practices that language activists use to measure language endangerment and vitality. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in the Dene Tha settlement of Chateh in northwestern Alberta, Canada, I argue that the practices of speaker enumeration are often premised on idealised notions of who counts as an endangered language speaker. Standard methods for counting endangered language speakers fail to capture the heterogeneous linguistic practices of partially fluent “semi-speakers,” who often constitute the majority of young speakers in endangered language communities. To correct this oversight, I propose shifting the discourse of language endangerment toward one of language vitality, enabling semi-speakers to be recognised and counted as rightful, valid speakers of endangered languages.

Language Archiving

2018 ◽  
pp. 346-369
Author(s):  
Andrea L. Berez-Kroeker ◽  
Ryan Henke
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Endangered Languages ◽  
Language Documentation ◽  
Digital Archiving ◽  
Endangered Language ◽  
History Of ◽  
Participatory Model ◽  
User Centered

In this chapter, the authors examine the role of language archiving in endangered-language scholarship. First they explore the history of archiving for endangered languages, from the age of Boas and the archiving of analog materials through the rise of the endangered-language movement and the development of best practices for digital archiving to the current era of established archiving standards. Then they discuss a potential future for language archiving, that of the participatory model of language archiving, which is radically user-centered and draws on trends in the archival sciences. Next they present some of the extant archives for language documentation, the members of the Digital Endangered Languages and Music Archiving Network. Finally, because archiving is an activity that is now available to anyone undertaking endangered-language work, they close by presenting the steps one would take to work with an archive to deposit one’s own materials.

scholarly journals A Program for the Preservation and Revitalization of the Languages of Russia

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 507-527
Author(s):  
Andrej A. Kibrik
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Necessary Conditions ◽  
National Language ◽  
Endangered Languages ◽  
Language Documentation ◽  
Scientific Validity ◽  
Language Preservation ◽  
Language Endangerment ◽  
Three Stages ◽  
Academy Of Sciences

This article presents the Program for the Preservation and Revitalization of the Languages of Russia proposed by the Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences (the Program). The Program is based on knowledge accumulated in linguistics in domains such as linguistic diversity, language endangerment, and language preservation methods. According to a recent assessment, there are 150 to 160 languages of Russia. This number of languages, even though quite high, is manageable for a national language preservation Program. Languages are rapidly becoming extinct worldwide, and Russia is no exception to this trend. The following terms are used to categorize languages according to risk of extinction: safe languages, endangered languages, severely endangered languages, and nearly extinct languages. There are several important humanitarian and scientific reasons for engaging in language preservation. The central idea of the Program is to boost intergenerational language transmission wherever feasible. Various approaches to different language situations are envisaged, including enlightenment campaigns, language nests, and language documentation. Three necessary conditions for language revitalization include engaging local activists, administrative and financial support, and the scientific validity of the methodology. The Programs 12-year roadmap is split into three stages. There are a number of favorable factors making the Program feasible, as well as a number of potential obstacles. We have a historic opportunity to preserve languages spoken in Russia, and this is an opportunity that must be used.

scholarly journals Made in India SiDHELA Indias First Endangered Language Archive

2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (05) ◽  
pp. 292-299
Author(s):  
R. Karthick Narayanan
Keyword(s):  
Primary Data ◽  
Endangered Languages ◽  
Language Documentation ◽  
Endangered Language ◽  
Linguistic Resource ◽  
The University ◽  
Theoretical Issues ◽  
North Bengal ◽  
Made In

Sikkim-Darjeeling Himalayan Endangered Languages Archive (SiDHELA) created by the Centre for Endangered Languages, Sikkim University is India’s first endangered language archive. This archive is part of the ongoing language documentation initiatives of the Centre funded by the University Grant Commission. The Centre, formally established in December 2016 aims for preservation and promotion of endangered languages in Sikkim and North Bengal. The Centre carries out documentation and description of the indigenous endangered languages of the region through linguistic and ethnographic fieldwork. SiDHELA conceptualised as a platform for a linguistic resource of the languages spoken in the region, houses the primary data collected through fieldwork. One of the main aims of this archive is to preserve the data for long term usage and dissemination. Central Library, Sikkim University hosts the archive under its digital library. Through this archive the Centre for Endangered Languages, Sikkim University seeks not just to preserve and protect but also to promote the use of endangered languages spoken in the region. This paper presents the journey of this archive from idea to reality. This paper outlines the motivation behind the conceptualisation of SiDHELA as a regional archive and then discusses its development. It includes discussion on the developmental platform, theoretical issues in the conceptualisation of the archive and practical challenges in its design and development and its prospects. This paper thus primarily intends to inform scholars and researchers working with endangered languages of the region about this archive and its development. Finally, it hopes to kindle interest among researchers and librarians for developments of more such regional archives.

scholarly journals Archives 2.0 for endangered languages: From disk space to MySpace

2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 111-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Nathan
Keyword(s):  
Social Networking ◽  
Endangered Languages ◽  
Language Documentation ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Disk Space ◽  
Endangered Language ◽  
Salient Features ◽  
Information Providers

The salient features of endangered language documentation are diversity and protocol. The Endangered Languages Archive at SOAS is creating a new archive to take advantage of web-based social networking to address these issues. The archive is reconceived as a platform for conducting relationships between information providers (depositors) and information users, using the now-familiar idiom of Facebook. Rather than the archive having to continually broker complex access conditions, depositors and requesters can negotiate directly with each other via the archive to achieve more flexible and creative outcomes.

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