Endangered Languages
There are variety of factors that help us to determine whether a language
UP:23/04/2012-09:19:31 WM:23/04/2012-09:19:38 M:LG102-4-FY A:11a5 R:1101631 C:A531A08874E68F858726D2BE7C18B7DAF6AD10B9
is in a dangerous position or not, such as acquisition rate by the children, attitude of the whole community to the language and effects of other languages that can threaten the language. Moreover, being able to have and evaluate such factors is important in order to decide the level of endangerment of a language. Classification of endangerment is needed for deciding the urgency of situation and to allocate scarce resources when it is needed. Therefore, languages are classified as safe, endangered or extinct. This paper is written for giving information about endangered languages, the subject of endangered language will be explained and an example of endangered language from United Kingdom called Scottish Gaelic will be discussed deeply. (Crystal 2000) If a language has enough speakers and it is being used, it can be named as safe language, however, if a language is not spoken anymore and if it has been lost, it is called an extinct language. In addition to these two classes of language, there are endangered languages. Endangered languages are languages that need help to increase its presence. Generally governments or native speakers of languages can help them to be spoken more widely and to survive when they face the danger of extinction. Endangered languages are not spoken by children and youngest speakers of such languages are young adults so they are in danger of extinction because death of a language is inevitable when all of its speakers die. According to the classification of Stephen Wurm that is cited in Crystal (2000), there are five levels of endangered languages and they are named as potentially endangered, seriously endangered, moribund languages and extinct languages. Firstly it is said that, endangered languages have very limited number
of child
UP:23/04/2012-09:19:31 WM:23/04/2012-09:19:38 M:LG102-4-FY A:11a5 R:1101631 C:A531A08874E68F858726D2BE7C18B7DAF6AD10B9
is in a dangerous position or not, such as acquisition rate by the children, attitude of the whole community to the language and effects of other languages that can threaten the language. Moreover, being able to have and evaluate such factors is important in order to decide the level of endangerment of a language. Classification of endangerment is needed for deciding the urgency of situation and to allocate scarce resources when it is needed. Therefore, languages are classified as safe, endangered or extinct. This paper is written for giving information about endangered languages, the subject of endangered language will be explained and an example of endangered language from United Kingdom called Scottish Gaelic will be discussed deeply. (Crystal 2000) If a language has enough speakers and it is being used, it can be named as safe language, however, if a language is not spoken anymore and if it has been lost, it is called an extinct language. In addition to these two classes of language, there are endangered languages. Endangered languages are languages that need help to increase its presence. Generally governments or native speakers of languages can help them to be spoken more widely and to survive when they face the danger of extinction. Endangered languages are not spoken by children and youngest speakers of such languages are young adults so they are in danger of extinction because death of a language is inevitable when all of its speakers die. According to the classification of Stephen Wurm that is cited in Crystal (2000), there are five levels of endangered languages and they are named as potentially endangered, seriously endangered, moribund languages and extinct languages. Firstly it is said that, endangered languages have very limited number
of child
Bibliography: UP:23/04/2012-09:19:31 WM:23/04/2012-09:19:38 M:LG102-4-FY A:11a5 R:1101631 C:A531A08874E68F858726D2BE7C18B7DAF6AD10B9 Brenzinger, M.(2007) Coulmas, F. ( 1997). The Handbook of Sociolinguistics. Blackwell Publishing, Oxford. Crystal, D. (2000). Language Death. Cambridge University Press, New York. Edwards,J. (2010). Minority Languages and Group Identity, Cases and Categories. John Benjamins Publishing, Amsterdam. Holmes, J. (1999). An introduction to Sociolinguistics. Longman Publishing. Mcleod,W. (2008). The European Charter for, Regional or Minority languages: Legal Challenges and Opportunities. Stratsburg. Maclntyre, M.(2009). The Revival of Scottish Gaelic Trough Education. USA Cambria Press. Trudgill, P. (1995). Sociolinguistics:An introduction to Language and Society(3rd edition). London. Wilson, N., Murphy, A. (2008). Scotland. Lonely Planet Publications Ltd. China.