The Routledge Handbook of Language Revitalization

Abstract

Efforts to revitalize languages are situated within the wider context of efforts to maintain and revitalize intangible expressions of culture more broadly, from music to dance to ritual and ceremonial traditions. In some ways, language revitalization efforts are considerably further advanced in both theory and practice than those relating to other cultural expressions. Taking music as a example, this chapter draws together the scholarly field of language revitalization with the growing investigations into music sustainability, making the case for close collaboration between sociolinguists and applied ethnomusicologists on these issues. It argues three main reasons: first, that collaboration will help consolidate a common language to describe and discuss the issues; second, that it will advance theoretical frameworks and tools to support our combined efforts; and third, it will strengthen advocacy around the need for revitalisation efforts, in the community, scholarly, and public spheres. From its beginnings in the late 19 th century until the mid-20 th century, the discipline of ethnomusicology (or, as it was then called, 'comparative musicology') placed key importance on capturing the sounds of 'dying' cultures before they disappeared. In this pursuit, it was informed and influenced by research activity and interest in other disciplines, including sociolinguistics and anthropology. But from around mid-century, the attitudes of music researchers toward issues of musical loss and change began to shift considerably. By the early 1990s, music preservation interests had fallen out of favor, with many ethnomusicologists holding view that 'salvage' or 'white knight' efforts to 'save' dying music genres were overly romanticized, neo-colonial and paternalistic. By comparison, this was around the time when, in an extended article in the journal Language, Ken Hale and his colleagues "attempt to represent as forcefully as we can. .. the reality of language loss and decline as a condition of the modern world" (Hale et al, 1992, p. 2), and to argue for the relevance of linguistics and linguists in responding and This is an author-produced PDF of an invited contribution to the Handbook of Language Revitalization, copyright Routledge. The citation information is: Grant, C. (2017). A case for greater interdisciplinary collaboration in language and music revitalization. In L. Huss & G. Roche (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Language Revitalization (pp. 236-244). Routledge.

Indigenous Language Revitalization and Applied Linguistics: Parallel Histories, Shared Futures?

“…Those include the Root Word Method (Green & Maracle, 2018), Language "Nesting at home" (Zahir, 2018), an overview of the "Where are your keys?" and, finally, the Master-Apprentice Language Learning Program (Hinton et al, 2018a). Each of these methods offers an explanation as to what the method looks like and the successes and challenges known to the method.…”

Persian Language Dominance and the Loss of Minority Languages in Iran

“…The dominance of the Persian language over Arabic reminded Iranians of their pre-Islamic glories and identity (Kia, 1998) because according to Joseph (2007) a language leads to identity by configuring its speakers' experiences into words and inducing humans "to form a conception of self rather than being ourselves" (p. 24). Also, when a language dies, its identity or sense of brotherhood disappears and induces complex, varied feelings, and reactions among its speakers or those associated with it (Hinton, Huss, & Roche, 2018 (Kalan, 2016). One of the implications of such a policy was that Iranian minority people were banned from observing their cultural practices and their speakers were never permitted to call for gathering to preserve their cultures and customs (Hassanpour, 1992 (Kia, 1998).…”

Toward Designing and Implementing Language Revitalization Programs in Academia and Community

“…Evans (2010) defines language loss as the gradual loss of a language where the speakers of a dominated language eventually lose their language proficiency, knowledge systems and cultures. There are external and internal reasons to language loss, where some of the external reasons inducing language loss are colonization and death (Hinton et al, 2018); assimilation policies and residential schools (Gessner et al, 2014); disease, genocide and forced relocation (McIvor & Anisman, 2018); and world economic growth (Amano et al, 2014). Language loss happens when the required education is offered in a dominant language (Lomawaima & McCarty, 2006) and its social and linguistic domination leads to a decrease in the number of speakers and contexts of the weaker languages (Shaul, 2014 (Hinton et al, 2018).…”

“…There are external and internal reasons to language loss, where some of the external reasons inducing language loss are colonization and death (Hinton et al, 2018); assimilation policies and residential schools (Gessner et al, 2014); disease, genocide and forced relocation (McIvor & Anisman, 2018); and world economic growth (Amano et al, 2014). Language loss happens when the required education is offered in a dominant language (Lomawaima & McCarty, 2006) and its social and linguistic domination leads to a decrease in the number of speakers and contexts of the weaker languages (Shaul, 2014 (Hinton et al, 2018). As they fear to be ridiculed by the speakers of the dominant language, the speakers of the minority language will willingly step away from their mother tongue and incline toward the dominant and prestigious language in that context.…”

“…Considering language shift and loss, LR programs are developed and implemented to revive and maintain endangered or lost languages. That is because there is little doubt about the importance of revitalization of languages, and there exists a positive relationship between speaking Indigenous languages and having good health (Hinton et al, 2018), and between Indigenous land, language, and culture and the general wellbeing of Indigenous speakers (Oster, Grier, Lightning, Mayan, & Toth, 2014). Additionally, there is a reduced level of diabetes (Oster et al, 2014) and suicide (Hallett et al, 2007) (Reyhner & Lockard, 2009).…”