Summary an introduction to sociolinguistics (original) (raw)

Language Maintenance and Language Shift - a Contrarian Viewpoint

This short informal paper stems from reflection on an address by Ken Hale, doyen of minority languages (and now sadly deceased). It looks at the role of linguists themselves in the dynamic of language maintenance and the twin phenomena of language loss and language birth. The uniqueness of each language is weighed against the costs and benefits of language homogenization. It is recognized that the majority of speakers are ultimately pragmatists about language choice, yet an argument remains for offering some minority language support to groups struggling with their ethnic identity. Finally, it is asked whether language maintenance or revival can actually pose other risks under certain conditions.

Endangered Languages: A Survey Through Sociological Perspectives by David Minor

The last speakers of probably half of the world's languages are alive today. As they grow old and die, their voices will fall silent. Their children and grandchildren -by overwhelming majority -will either choose not to learn or will be deprived of the opportunity to learn the ancestral languages. Most of the world's languages have never been written down anywhere or scientifically described. We do not even know what exactly we stand to lose -for science, for humanity, for posterity -when languages die. An immense edifice of human knowledge, painstakingly assembled over millennia by countless minds is eroding, vanishing into oblivion.

Change, Oblivion and Death: Three stages in Language Endangerment

CenPRIS WP 133/10, 2010

Language shift is a common feature in the speech communities around the world and of all times. In a scenario where a language is still acknowledged as a receptacle of knowledge, the loss of a traditional language or its exchange for another one may be considered to be either a loss of traditional knowledge or, alternatively, an exchange for a 'better' knowledge. The awareness of language endangerment is therefore intrinsically linked to the awareness of culture endangerment. This paper discusses three Southeast Asian languages, 'Melayu sini' in The Netherlands, Serua in Indonesia and Nisa or Rusenu in East-Timor that illustrate incipient, advanced and terminal language endangerment, respectively.'Melayu sini' features extensive mixing with Dutch in such a way that it becomes more and more difficult for its speakers to differentiate between both languages. In Serua, linguistic endangerment is signaled through irreversible attrition and even erosion of morphological system. Nisa or Rusenu is the prototypical moribund language, whose final speaker in fact is not even a semi-speaker but only remembers the language through a single lullaby.

Language Shift and Language Maintenance

The existence of language surely cannot be separated from our daily life. Through language, the interaction among tribes and religions can be delivered smoothly. As a system of communication, language also helps humans to complete all of their activities without facing the scarcity in understanding of one’s another language. That is under the condition they share the same knowledge of a certain language and utter it as the medium of communication. They also share the same understanding in all of their vernacular aspects, like the grammatical, structure, and the choice of words (either it is formal or not). And they should have agreed about some puns and slangs that are allowed to use in the middle of conversation. But how about people from different ethnic groups or tribes understanding what people from out of their groups say? Are they going to face difficulties as the result of not having clear mind about the dominant language they find in society?

GLOBALISATION AND ECOLOGY OF LANGUAGES

GLOBALISATION AND ECOLOGY OF LANGUAGES 1 ABSTRACT As many experts and theoreticians in the field of linguistics have already predicted, during the last two decades, English has become the world's most widely spoken language for trade, education, business and tourism (Graddol, 2001). One may have a tendency to ask himself why the spread of the English language seems very difficult to stop, but on the other hand can be controlled for a productive outcome to the world. Perhaps the most obvious reason is the sheer necessity of the commodity in relation to other languages, and as such, its importance should be harnessed in order not to also cause endangering to minority languages-thus promoting a near perfect, if not a perfect ecology for the world's languages. This essay examines the factors necessary not to endanger what is seen as minority languages in the world at a period of English language globalization. 2 INTRODUCTION It is arguably clear that most loss of a language has not been self-evidently life threatening. Neither has it attracted much attention as compared to other phenomena like climate change, hunger and the likes. This could partly be because enough effort is not carried out to make people conscious of the gradual, but the painful nature of the consequences of language extinction. In our everyday lives, we tend to pay greater attention on economic and other factors which affect us directly than the subtle influence of our languages. Most syllabus in our schooling probably focus on the physical sciences, business studies and a host of familiar fields than that of our language ecology and the factors that mitigate against it. A major factor of language which, if not controlled with the right policy framework can, and has been described as killing and endangering other minority languages is the system of language globalization; the growth of a language to an international or worldwide scope. On the first guess one may ask how a language growth in the international arena could possibly pose a threat to others, and this is addressed in detail in this essay. Naturally, since humans are associated with different forms of activities on a daily basis and these interactions deals with fellow humans, our respective languages come into contacts automatically. Haugen (1972:35) defined language ecology, as 'the study of interactions between any given