Language death, maintenance and revival

1. Language death, maintenance and revival • people stop speaking a language and start speaking another – language shift • If every speaker shifts the language is no longer spoken anywhere – language death

2. Language death • Very old – languages replaced by Latin and Greek in the Roman Empire, Arabic in West Asia • Distinction – slow peaceful change as a language changes into another – Latin – French and Italian – Sanskrit – Hindi and Punjabi – Classical Malay – Modern Malay – is not language death

3. continued • Language death – one language is replaced by another • Death of speakers – Australian Aborigines, Native Tasmanians and Native Caribbeans – mainly by disease • Most frequently – all speakers shift to other languages – Australia and Americas

4. Language Suicide • Gradual replacement by a closely related language • Decreolisation in the Caribbean • Maybe Tok Pisin in PNG

5. Causes of death • Occasionally by force – boarding school policy for American Indians from 1890s • Sometimes disease (Tasmania), flood, earthquakes, AIDS in Africa

6. continued • More often cultural and economic – migration to cities, intermarriage, education, conversion to scriptural religions • Economic rewards for language death – social and cultural penalties for speaking old language

7. continued • Acceleration with rise of modern empires – French, English, Russian -- and migration • (note also simultaneous rise of new languages, pidgins and creoles and new varieties – New Englishes)

8. Today • 6-10,000 world languages – at least half threatened with extinction • One century or two – only 1-200 languages left? • Any language with less than 1 million (100?) speakers is in danger of extinction • Especially Americas, Africa, Australia

9. Examples • California – 98 indigenous languages • Shift to Spanish before 19th C., then English • 45 -- no fluent speakers • 17 – 1-5 speakers in 2001 • 36 spoken by old people • 0 spoken by children

10. continued • World -- at least 400 languages have only elderly speakers • E.g. Busuu (Cameroon) – 8 • Lipan Apache (US) – 2 or 3 • Wadjigu (Australia) – 1? • Maybe one died while you were writing

11. Who are the murderers? • European languages --English, Spanish, Portuguese • Regional languages – Hausa, Swahili, Malay • Other local languages – esp. in Africa

12. When does a language die? • Common sense – when the least speaker dies (or penultimate?) • But Cornish died in 1696 (last monoglot speaker), 1777 (last native speaker), early C19th (last naturalistic learner), 1891 – last student of a native speaker (?) – 1940s Cornish words used for counting fish

13. Is there a life after death? • Dead languages may survive as languages of religion – Coptic, some languages of the Roman Empire – prophecies, magic and ceremony -- Manx • Often provide words for local animals and plants and geography • E.g. mysterious place names in Britain

14. continued • Khoisan languages in southern Africa – words to Zulu and English – gogga (insect) kudu (antelope) • North American English – moose and squash (Narragansett), raccoon, pecan hickory (Powhatan), skunk (Abenaki)

15. continued • Australian English – dingo, koala, wallaby (Dharuk) – also boomerang • Taino (Caribbean) – maize, cassava, yucca • Arawak (Caribbean) – cannibal • Words for counting sheep in N. England – Celtic language dead for 1000 years

16. Consequences • 2003 UNESCO paper – language death results in the loss of unique biological and ecological knowledge • Reduces knowledge about human language and mind • Death of unique cultures

17. continued • Sapir-Whorf hypothesis – language determines culture e.g. Hopi – lack of a sense of time • But criticised • Close relationship of Australian languages • Contradicted by Chomsky and UG

18. Distinctive features of languages • Hawaian – no consonant clusters – only five vowels • Khoisan – clicks

19. Loss of local knowledge • North Frisian – word for pituitary gland indicated awareness that stress damages the gland • Amazon -- place names indicate where fish can be found • Africa – Names for plants indicate medicinal properties

20. Military value? • US army – codes in Navaho – also Cherokee (WWI) and Zulu • Redundant now?

21. Can dying languages be maintained? • Serious attempts from mid-20th century in US, Australia, Europe • Subjects in school, media, education • Success is limited – economic and cultural factors in North America and Australia

22. continued • Absence of realistic domain except ceremonial and political • Requires motivation to overcome economic disadvantages • At best – will be used in formal situations

23. continued • Success requires political support – usually absent with small languages • Also fairly large population • Success stories – French in Canada, Welsh, Maori, Hawaian, Catalan, Irish • Becomes a taught second language

24. Canada • Language shift from French to English reversed • Coercion – signboards – immigrants and minorities required to be taught in French – control of immigration • Required control of provincial govt. • Signs that shift is starting again

25. Ireland • Shift from Irish to English almost complete by 1920s • Govt required signs in 2 languages – pass in Irish for govt employment – economic subsidies to Irish speaking areas • Revival as a taught 2nd language – continued decline as a 1st language

26. continued Language death can be prevented or language death reversed if • Supporters control local or national govt • Group is distinct for historical or ethnic reasons • Language is culturally valued

27. Is revival possible? • Can a dead language be revived? • Maybe Hebrew in Israel? – but exceptional • Religious and cultural value • Tradition of language shift • Rejection of spoken languages • Continued written and formal use • Maybe modern Hebrew a new language

28. continued • Dead languages may be studied as a hobby (Cornish), symbol of group identity (Sanskrit) or for religious reasons (Coptic) • But no (maybe one) examples of real revival • Language creation is just as pointless.

29. Problems • Some dead languages not written • Some died before they could be recorded (Cornish) • Even if recorded may be problems – last speaker of Dalmatian had no teeth (dental fricatives?) • Which variety? – from what period?

30. Final observation • New varieties come into existence – Beduin Sign language – pidgins – new dialects – New Englishes • In time may become languages – laissez-faire policy for language birth as well as language death?