Endangered Languages
Endangered Languages
CONOR MCDONOUGH QUINN
Languages that are threatened with the loss of natural generational transmission are referred to as endangered languages. Language endangerment generally occurs in the later stages of language shift, that is, when a speech community moves away from their earlier variety, dialect, or language to a new one or new set thereof (Fishman, 1991). While the processes of endangerment and extinction have likely been constant throughout the history of human language, the scale and the pace of this loss—whose cumulative effect is the reduction of linguistic diversity—in the modern era appears to be uniquely intense, with up to half or more of the currently estimated 5,000–6,000 languages spoken today expected to be lost within a century or so (Hale et al., 1992). Both the nature of this loss and its consequences are complex and involve deep psychosocial factors as much as purely linguistic ones. Two common reactions to language endangerment include language revitalization and linguistic documentation, both of which present extensive challenges and opportunities for applied linguistics. The sources of language endangerment are not uniform, but do generally present recurrent themes on both the broader external social/political/economic and the narrower community-internal and individual scales, corresponding in broad strokes to what Grenoble and Whaley (1998) refer to as macro- and micro-factors. From the macro-factor perspective, language shift can occur from sheer population loss of a speech community, due to war, disease, famine, or rather commonly, economically motivated outmigration, that is, dispersal into a diaspora that makes daily use of a given language no longer practical or meaningful/effective. Demographically stable communities, however, experience language endangerment just as readily when they are induced to shift for other reasons. Loss of prestige is a very common factor: It can be introduced through schooling, often
CONOR MCDONOUGH QUINN
Languages that are threatened with the loss of natural generational transmission are referred to as endangered languages. Language endangerment generally occurs in the later stages of language shift, that is, when a speech community moves away from their earlier variety, dialect, or language to a new one or new set thereof (Fishman, 1991). While the processes of endangerment and extinction have likely been constant throughout the history of human language, the scale and the pace of this loss—whose cumulative effect is the reduction of linguistic diversity—in the modern era appears to be uniquely intense, with up to half or more of the currently estimated 5,000–6,000 languages spoken today expected to be lost within a century or so (Hale et al., 1992). Both the nature of this loss and its consequences are complex and involve deep psychosocial factors as much as purely linguistic ones. Two common reactions to language endangerment include language revitalization and linguistic documentation, both of which present extensive challenges and opportunities for applied linguistics. The sources of language endangerment are not uniform, but do generally present recurrent themes on both the broader external social/political/economic and the narrower community-internal and individual scales, corresponding in broad strokes to what Grenoble and Whaley (1998) refer to as macro- and micro-factors. From the macro-factor perspective, language shift can occur from sheer population loss of a speech community, due to war, disease, famine, or rather commonly, economically motivated outmigration, that is, dispersal into a diaspora that makes daily use of a given language no longer practical or meaningful/effective. Demographically stable communities, however, experience language endangerment just as readily when they are induced to shift for other reasons. Loss of prestige is a very common factor: It can be introduced through schooling, often
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