Transcript An Overview of Falam Chin Morphology and Syntax

DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
DIPLOMA COURSE CODE 101: English
Language development:
1. Language ecology
2. Language Shift
3. Language Death
4. Language Revitalization
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1
What is Language Ecology?
• the study of the interaction of any given
language and its environment
• What environments:
– Weaken language health? (language shift =
language endangerment + language death)
– Foster language health? (language revitalization)
Language Shift
• The decline or extinction of a language in situations
where languages come into contact with each other (
language contact).
LANGUAGE DEATH
• The disappearance of a language as a mother tongue.
A language, particularly a minority language, may
come under enormous pressure from a more
prestigious or more widely used language spoken
nearby.
• Language death is a type of language shift. However,
unlike bilingualism, which involves speakers shifting
from one language to another in different contexts,
language death occurs when, over time, a language
loses all its speakers.
Language Shift and Death
• Language death: when the last speaker of a language
dies
• Language shift: the process by which communities
adopt another language
• Language shift & death: Cornish (to English)
• Shift without death: Welsh (to English) Norwegian
(to English) in the US
• Death without shift: Tasmanian etc. – normally
because population is killed.
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Language shift
3 Criteria for “Endangered Language”
• The number of speakers currently living.
• The mean age of native and/or fluent
speakers.
• The percentage of the youngest generation
acquiring fluency with the language in
question.
The path to language Death
Stable – language is passed to the younger generation
↓
Endangered – fewer and fewer children learning the
language; learn majority language instead
↓
Moribund – no longer passed to younger generation;
speakers all middle aged or older
↓
Extinct – no living native speakers
What causes language shift and death?
• Difficult to pinpoint exact causes that will always accurately
predict language shift or death … but …
• War and conflict, especially genocide
• Population movement e.g. migration, re-settlement or taking of
traditional land
• Also (similarly) re-drawing of national boundaries in e.g.
colonial Africa
• Economic reasons such as choosing to adopt a majority
language e.g. for jobs
• Demographics (e.g. declining birth rate, exogamy)
• Institutional support: whether ‘laissez-faire’ or overt
proscription
• Etc. – But often a combination of different historical social
and political factors (see Mesthrie et al 2000)
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External causes of LS (“murder”)
• Genocide or plague
• Geographical displacement because of war, famine, or
religious persecution
• Repressive policies toward minority languages
– forbidden to speak in school
– taught to despise
“I still remembered that when I was first grade, I was
forced to speak Burmese. If I spoke Mon, I had to pay
fine for 25 pyar.”
Pon Nya Mon, Chairman, Monland Restoration Council
Internal causes of LS (“suicide”)
• Pragmatic
– Trade or employment
– Higher education or government
– Intermarriage
• Ideological
– Enamoration with Western culture
– Indigenous language as inferior or shameful
– Religious conversion
Language contact will not lead to language death as long as
some domains of use are retained.
Language shift
• diglossia/triglossia—use in a society of more than one
language, each with distinct domains
Colonial language
↓
Dominant indigenous language
↓
Minority language(s)
• domains of use—situations that call for use of one
language over another
Language shift
H Language
•
•
•
•
•
Learned by formal education
Used in prestigious domains (religion, education, business, government)
Attributed greater beauty and elegance
Owns the written domain
Language of economic advantage
L Language
• Learned in the home
• Used in domains of solidarity (home, w/ friends and family)
Language Revitalization
External helps
• Funding
• Expert help
– Linguists—produce orthography, grammar, dictionary, literacy
materials, etc.
– Teachers—language and literacy training
• Governmental support
– Recognition of minority languages
– Allow teaching in primary education
– Political autonomy
• Forums for use
– Immersion programs, “language nests”
– Radio broadcasts
Language Revitalization
Internal helps
• Linguistic “patriotism” and commitment
• Ingenuity
– Vocabulary development
– Production of written work
Three examples of language revitalization
• Hebrew
• Maori
• Welsh
In what ways are these revitalization
programs succeeding?
Where could they do better?
Why “save” languages?
1. To preserve diversity
2. To prevent loss of scientific knowledge
3. To value the people who speak them
The Development of New Languages?
• Language contact situations can (and do) produce ‘contact
languages’ (i.e. a mixed language)
• Also produce pidgins, and later, creoles.
• They can add vitality and innovation to a new language by
enriching the lexicon.
• This is why the language death argument – as if languages
were biological ‘species’ – is a bit odd: ‘if a dog and a bird are
in the same house, the dog doesn’t sprout wings, nor does the
bird grow paws’ – languages in contact can produce new
languages.
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