Endangered Languages: An Introduction

✍ Scribed by Sarah Grey Thomason

• Year: 2015
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 246
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

"Most of the 7,000 languages spoken in the world today will vanish before the end of this century, taking with them cultural traditions from all over the world, as well as linguistic structures that would have improved our understanding of the universality and variability of human language. This book is an accessible introduction to the topic of language endangerment, answering questions such as: What is it? How and why does it happen? And why should we care? The book outlines the various causes of language endangerment; explaining what makes a language "safe", and highlighting the danger signs that threaten a minority language. Readers will learn about the consequences of losing a language, both for its former speech community and for our understanding of human language. Illustrated with case studies, it describes the various methods of documenting endangered languages, and shows how they can be revitalised"--

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Half-title
Series page
Title page
Copyright information
Dedication
Table of contents
Preface
1 Introduction
1.1 How can we tell when a language is endangered?
1.2 Where are all the endangered languages?
1.3 A precondition for language endangerment: language contact
1.4 Summary and outline of the book’s contents
1.5 Sources and further readings
2 Why and how languages become endangered
2.1 Conquest
2.2 Economic pressures
2.3 Melting pots
2.4 Language politics
2.5 Attitudes
2.6 Loss of linguistic diversity via standardization
2.7 What doesn’t promote endangerment?
2.8 Summary
2.9 Sources and further readings
3 Sliding into dormancy: Social processes and linguistic effects
3.1 Five case studies
3.1.1 Case study #1: Eyak
3.1.2 Case study #2: Cornish
3.1.3 Case study #3: Egyptian
3.1.4 Case study #4: Yaaku
3.1.5 Case study #5: Mednyj Aleut
3.2 What do these case studies tell us?
3.3 Tip
3.4 Semi-speakers and rememberers
3.5 Attrition
3.6 An alternative route to language death: grammatical (and lexical) replacement
3.7 Summary and commentary
3.8 Sources and further readings
4 What a community loses: Language loss as cultural loss
4.1 Heritage languages and cultural identity
4.2 Language loss as loss of artistic expression
4.3 Loss of a language, loss of cultural knowledge
4.4 Would the world be better off without linguistic diversity?
4.5 Sources and further readings
5 What science loses: Language loss as a threat to our understanding of human history, human cognition, and the natural world
5.1 Endangered languages and human history
5.2 Endangered languages and human cognition
5.3 Endangered languages and knowledge of the natural world
5.4 Sources and further readings
6 Field research on endangered languages
6.1 Descriptive linguistics and documentary linguistics
6.2 On linguistic fieldwork in general (not just on endangered languages)
6.2.1 What is fieldwork?
6.2.2 What is a reasonable time span for a fieldwork project?
6.2.3 Dealing with psychological stress in the field
6.3 Investigating gravely endangered languages in the field
6.3.1 Working with consultants: access, collaboration, communication, selection, and data-collection techniques
6.3.2 Field sessions
6.3.3 Individual variation
6.3.4 An extended example: dictionary-making
6.4 Summary and commentary
6.5 Sources and further readings
7 Revitalizing endangered languages
7.1 Factors that contribute to successful revitalization efforts
7.2 Some types of revitalization programs
7.3 From the past to the future
7.3.1 Language revitalization in the digital age
7.3.2 The value of unsuccessful revitalization efforts
7.4 Sources and further readings
Glossary – languages and terms
Bibliography
Language index
Names index
Subject index