Can Threatened Languages be Saved?

by Fishman, Joshua A.

• ISBN13: 9781853594939
• ISBN10: 1853594938
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-01-05
• Publisher: Multilingual Matters

Summary

Defenders of threatened languages all over the world, from advocates of biodiversity to dedicated defenders of their own cultural authenticity, are often humbled by the dimensity of the task that they are faced with when the weak and the few seek to find a safe-harbour against the ravages of the strong and the many. This book provides both practical case studies and theoretical directions from all five continents and advances thereby the collective pursuit of "reversing language shift" for the greater benefit of cultural democracy everywhere.

Author Biography

Joshua A. Fishman, a leading sociolinguist, is Distinguished University Research Professor, Social Sciences, Emeritus, at the Ferkauf Graduate School of Yeshiva University, and Visiting Professor at Stanford University, New York University, City University of New York Graduate Center and Long Island University. He is the author/editor of 38 books including Reversing Language Shift (Multilingual Matters, 1991) and the General Editor (and founder) of the International Journal of the Sociology of Language and of the book series Contributions to the Sociology of Language.

Table of Contents

Contributors	vii
Preface	xii
Why is it so Hard to Save a Threatened Language?	1	(22)
J.A. Fishman
The Americas
Reversing Navajo Language Shift, Revisited	23	(21)
T. Lee
D. McLaughlin
How Threatened is the Spanish of New York Puerto Ricans?	44	(30)
O. Garcia
J.L. Morin
K. Rivera
A Decade in the Life of a Two-in-One Language	74	(27)
J.A. Fishman
Reversing Language Shift in Quebec	101	(41)
R.Y. Bourhis
Otomi Language Shift and Some Recent Efforts to Reverse It	142	(24)
Y. Lastra
Reversing Quechua Language Shift in South America	166	(29)
N.H. Hornberger
K.A. King
Europe
Irish Language Production and Reproduction 1981--1996	195	(20)
P.O. Riagain
A Frisian Update of Reversing Language Shift	215	(19)
D. Gorter
Reversing Language Shift: The Case of Basque	234	(26)
M.-J. Azurmendi
E. Bachoc
F. Zabaleta
Catalan a Decade Later	260	(24)
M. Strubell
Africa and Asia
Saving Threatened Languages in Africa: A Case Study of Oko	284	(25)
E. Adegbija
Andamanese: Biological Challenge for Language Reversal	309	(14)
E. Annamalai
V. Gnanasundaram
Akor Itak --- Our Language, Your Language: Ainu in Japan	323	(27)
J.C. Maher
Hebrew After a Century of RLS Efforts	350	(14)
B. Spolsky
E. Shohamy
The Pacific
Can the Shift from Immigrant Languages be Reversed in Australia?	364	(27)
M. Clyne
Is the Extinction of Australia's Indigenous Languages Inevitable?	391	(32)
J. Lo Bianco
M. Rhydwen
RLS in Aotearoa/New Zealand 1989--1999	423	(28)
R. Benton
N. Benton
Conclusions
From Theory to Practice (and Vice Versa)	451	(33)
J.A. Fishman
Index	484