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CHAPER 5: LANGUAGE DEATH AND REVIVAL

Objectives:
a. Identify the causes and effects of language death.
b. Distinguish the significance and the profit of
revitalizing our language.

What is Language Death?

Language death is a linguistic term for the end or extinction of a language. It is
also called “language extinction”. Distinctions are commonly drawn between an
endangered language (one with few or no children learning the language) and an extinct
language (one in which the last native speaker has died).
• A language dies every two weeks
Linguist David Crystal has estimated that “one language [is] dying out somewhere
in the world, on average, every two weeks”. (By Hook or by Crook: A Journey in
Search of English, 2008).

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Language Death
“Every 14 days a language dies. By 2100, more than half of the more than 7,000
languages spoken on Earth – many of them not yet recorded – may disappear,
taking with them a wealth of knowledge about history, culture, the natural
environment, and the human brain.” (National Geographic Society, Enduring
Voices Project)
• “I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigree
of nations.” (Samuel Johnson)
• Language Death occurs in unstable bilingual or multilingual speech communities
as a result of language shift from a regressive minority language to a dominant
majority language. (Wolfgang Dressler, “Language Death.” 1988)

LANGUAGE EXTINCTION
• Distinction are commonly drawn between an endangered language (one with few
or no children learning the language) and an extinct language (one in which the
last native speaker has denied).

4 TYPES OF LANGUAGE DEATH

GRADUAL DEATH – involves gradual replacement of one language by another
Ex. Replacement of Gaelic by English in arts of Scotland.
SUDDEN DEATH – rapid extinction of language, without an intervening period of
bilingualism. The last speaker is monolingual in the dying
language, as in the case of Tasmanian.
RADICAL DEATH - due to severe political repression, a community may opt, out of
self-defense, to stop speaking their language. The last speaker
are thus fluent in the dying language, but don’t actually use it or
transmit it to their children.
BOTTOM-TO-TOP’ - a language ceases to be used as a medium of conversation, but
DEATH may survive in special use like a religion or folk songs.

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CAUSES OF RAPID LOSE AND ENDANGERMENT OF LANGUAGES

Tsunoda (2006, p. 57) claims that a language may be endangered due to language shift.
He further divides the causes of language endangerment into:
• Natural/ Decline or loss of population.: natural catastrophes (volcanic
Environmental eruption, earthquake, droughts, floods and famine), diseases
in particular, imported or epidemic diseases, such as sexual
transmitted disease, smallpox, measles, influenza, common
cold, leprosy, malaria, violent acts by humans such as
warfare, slavery, massacres, and genocide

• Political/ Dispossession of Land: Due to invasion, conquest,

Military colonization, settlement or grazing.
Relocation of the people: People may be relocated to an
Unfamiliar-and often inhospitable-environment for settlement

• Social Mixing of speakers of different languages. This may be

caused by boarding schools, reservations/settlements,
intermarriage.
Improved communication and mass media. In the
dominant language (TV, radio broadcast, films, videos, CDs,
printing press such as newspapers, magazines and books.)
• Language Policy Assimilation policy and language policy.
a. The education of children: this has promoted the
dominant language. It has drastic negative effects on the
minority language.
b. Imposition of the dominant language: prohibition of the
use of the indigenous language in education, punishment and
humiliation for the use of indigenous language.
• Linguistic Language purism: Some people may choose to retain their,
language in its “pure form”. It may seem strange but according
to Tsunado, Fishman (1964, p. 64) reports that “language
purism can lead to language loss”
EFFECTS OF LANGUAGE OF ENDANGERMENT
Effects on communities:

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As communities lose their language they often also lose parts of their cultural
traditions which are tied to that language, such as songs, myths and poetry that are not
easily transferred to another language. This may in turn affect their sense of identity,
producing a weakened social cohesion as their values and traditions are replaced with
new ones. This is sometimes characterized as anomie. Losing a language may also have
political consequences as some countries confer different political statuses or privileges
on minority ethnic groups, often defining ethnicity in terms of language. That means that
communities that lose their language may also lose their political legitimacy as a
community with special collective rights.
Effects on language:
During language loss – sometimes referred to as obsolescence in the linguistic
literature – the language that is being lost generally undergoes changes as speakers
make their language more similar to the language that they are shifting to. For example,
gradually losing grammatical or phonological complexities that are not found in the
dominant language.

Is language endangerment a problem?

Generally, the accelerated pace of language endangerment is considered to be a
problem by linguists and by the speakers. However, some linguists, such has late
phonetician Peter Ladefoged, have argued that language death is a natural part of the
process of human cultural development, and that languages die because communities
stop speaking from their own reasons. Ladefoged argued that linguists should simply
document and describe languages scientifically, but not seek to interfere with the process
of language loss. A similar view has been argued at length by linguist Salikoko Mufwene
who sees the cycles of language death and emergence of new languages through
creolization as a continuous ongoing process.
A majority of linguists do consider that language loss is an ethical problem as they
consider that most communities would prefer to maintain their languages if given a real
choice, as well as a scientific problem, because language loss on the scale currently
taking place while mean that future linguists will only have access to a fraction of the
world’s linguistic diversity, and will therefore have a skewed picture of what human
language is and can be.
Some linguists consider linguistic diversity to be analogous to biological diversity,
and compare language endangerment to wildfire endangerment.

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LANGUAGE REVITALIZATION
➢ Language revitalization is the attempt to add new linguistic form or social functions
to an embattled minority language with the aim of increasing its uses or users.
More specifically, language revitalization encompasses efforts which might target
the language structure, the uses of language, as well as the users of the language.
Language revitalization might entail corpus planning, status planning, as well as
acquisition planning (KING, 23)
STRATEGIES FOR LANGUAGE REVIVAL
Concerning strategies for language revival, two important issues need to be
highlighted, namely, what to revive: language, or language-and-culture, and levels of
language revival: the social or macro level, and the individual or micro level (Tsunoda
2006, p. 173).
What to revive: language alone, or language-and-culture?
One of the paramount roles of language is to develop, elaborate and transmit
culture. In other words, language and culture go “hand-in-hand” and therefore they are
inseparable (Amery 1994, p. 141). A significant number of researchers argue that a
successful revitalization program relies on maintaining both language and culture
There seems to be a general consensus that culture plays a key role in assisting
language revival. This can be done through creating a real life situation or a natural
context by choosing one of the traditional cultural aspects to aid in revitalizing a language
(Tsunoda 2006, p. 173).
Levels of language revival: the societal or macro level, and the individual or micro
level
These two levels are linked to each other. The societal or macro level refers to the
extent of language use in society, and the individual or micro level refers to the degree of
language proficiency of an individual.
The societal or macro level

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Tsunoda (2006, p. 175) reports that the strategies of language revival activities
depend on the degree of viability of the language. McKay (1996, p. 226) provides a
number of factors that play an important role in language revitalization programs: the
capability of using the language as a system of full communication, the number of
speakers, the economic situation and the political position of the speakers and their
language, and the speakers’ attitudes to both their language and the dominant language.
The individual or micro level
This is related to the degree of proficiency of an individual in the language. In terms
of language learning or language teaching, a number of approaches need to be
distinguished. First of all, ‘learning through the language’ is the most difficult approach
due to the use of language as the main medium of instruction, and therefore it requires a
fair number of fluent speakers in order to be implemented (Stephen Harris 1994, p. 137
cited in Tsunoda 2006, p. 178) Secondly, ‘learning of the language’ van be divided into
sub-approaches: acquiring language for daily use and accumulating words and phrases
(Amery 1994, p. 141). Finally, ‘learning about the language’ is the easiest approach to be
implemented and it can be employed in a language awareness program (Tsunoda 2006,
p. 179).
METHODS FOR LANGUAGE REVIVAL
As mentioned above, several languages are disappearing. At the same time, a
substantial number of initiatives are being made with the aim of maintaining threatened
languages or reviving extinct ones. A reasonable number of approaches to language
revival have been proposed (Amery 1994, p. 143). Implementation of language
revitalization methods is correlated with the degree of endangerment. To illustrate, the
bilingual method might be appropriate to weakening languages, but inappropriate to
extinct languages (Tsunoda 2006, p. 201).
Total-immersion method
It is generally agreed that total-immersion method is the best option for producing
a generation full of fluent speakers for a threatened language. There is a common-sense
premise that creating an environment in which learners only use a language is the best
way to learn that language. In term of revitalization, total-immersion method can be
defined as exposing learners to only hear and speak the endangered language (Tsunoda
2006, p. 202)
Partial-immersion or bilingual method

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Bilingual method is another significant approach to language revival that has been
used increasingly in many parts of the world. It can be defined as the use of both the local
language (endangered language) and the language of wider communication (dominant
language) as media of instruction (Hong 2010, p. 1). According to Hinton (2001, p. 8),
bilingual education is a vital tool for language maintenance rather than language
revitalization if the minority language is reinforced from the community. In other words,
although bilingual method creates an environment for using the local language in real
communication purposes, learners need to be motivated to use that language on the
playground and their every daily life.
Language reclamation method
Language reclamation is mainly concerned with extinct languages. It refers to the
revival of a language that is no longer spo0ken by utilizing its recorded materials (Amery
2000, p. 17 cited in Tsunoda 2006, p. 211). A variety of names has been given to this
process such as resurrection, revival and awakening. According to Grenoble (2006, p.
64), language revival is different from language reclamation because language revival
relies on native speakers as consultant while language reclamation is based on
documentation of the language. It can be said that both language revival and language
reclamation aim to bring dead languages back to life regardless of availability of native
speakers or remaining language documentation.

PROBLEMS OF LANGUAGE REVIVAL

Language revitalization programs face a variety of problems. A number of these
problems are present prior to the beginning of language revival activities such as
complexity of the language and existence of other languages to revive; and some of them
are not pre-existent, for example government support and language programs (Tsunoda
2006, p. 180).
Complexity of language
Complex grammatical system has been seen as the most serious problem that
might render any language difficult to be learned. It may result in reducing the possibility
of language transmission.
Existence of other language to revive
The presence of more than one language to maintain hinders the task of renewal.
The revival programs of Maori have been highly successful due to the absence of other
language that needs to be revitalized (Tsunoda 2006, p. 180).

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Government support
Government support plays a leading role in enhancing the likelihood of success of
language revival activities. It can be provided in different ways such as recognition of
people’s language and culture, and this can be done through encouraging the use of
minority languages in government offices, schools and mass media (Spolsky 1995, p.
188).
Language program
Language programs are the essence of language revitalization projects, and
accordingly they should be taken into account. The success of language activities is
influenced by a number of factors such as community support, parental participation,
shortage of human resources (native speakers or trained teachers) and lack of exposure
to the language being used. (McKay 1996, p. 137).

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