Endangered languages

On endangered languages and the safeguarding of diversity

Bibliographic Data

ID3000571
AuthorsKen Hale (corresponding author)
Year1992
Volume68
Issue1
Pages1-42
Publication date1992-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueLanguage (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0097-8507 • E-ISSN: 1535-0665
PublisherProject MUSE (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1353/lan.1992.0052
OpenAlexW2128629493
LanguageEN
Citations received73
References cited2

ENDANGERED LANGUAGESt On endangered languages and the safeguarding of diversity* Ken Hale Massachusetts Institute of Technology Like most people who have done linguistic field work for thirty years or so, I have worked on languages which are now extinct, eight of them in my case, and I have studied, and continue to study, many languages which are seriously imperiled. My experience is far from unusual, and the testimony of field workers alone would amply illustrate the extent of language loss in the world of the present era. It is reasonable, I suppose, to ask what difference it makes. On the one hand, one might say, language loss has been a reality throughout history; and on the other, the loss of a language is of no great moment either for science or for human intellectual life. I think, personally, that these ideas are wrong and that language loss is a serious matter. Or, more accurately, it is part of a process which is itself very serious. From what I have been able to learn, based on the model of early-modern and contemporary hunting and gathering and mobile agricultural peoples, the process of language loss throughout most of human history, i.e. the period prior to the development of large states and empires, has been attended by a period of grammatical merger in situations of multilingualism, in geographically confined areas, and among quite small communities—as, for example, in parts of Arnhem Land and Cape York Peninsula, Australia, and in the bilingual Sumu and Miskitu communities of Central America. By contrast, language loss in the modern period is of a different character, in its extent and in its implications. It is part of a much larger process of loss of cultural and intellectual diversity in which politically dominant languages and cultures simply overwhelm indigenous local languages and cultures, placing them in a condition which can only be described as embattled. The process is not unrelated to the simultaneous loss of diversity in the zoological and botanical worlds. An ecological analogy is not altogether inappropriate. We understand to some extent the dangers inherent in the loss of biological diversity on this earth. It is correct t [Editor's note: In November 1989, as an outgrowth of discussions with Colette Craig and Ken Hale, I asked them as well as LaVerne Masayesva Jeanne and Nora England to consider writing brief essays on the topic of 'responsible linguistics' for publication in Language. Since this theme is closely related to the topic of the 1991 LSA Endangered Languages symposium organized by Hale, other speakers at the symposium were also invited to contribute to the collection presented here—namely, Michael Krauss and Lucille Watahomigie & Akira Yamamoto. The message of these essays is urgent and vital; I urge all linguists to study them carefully. Ken Hale collected and edited the entire set of essays, and he deserves the profession's gratitude for carrying out this project.] * I wish to express my gratitude to my co-authors for their contributions to this collection and to the field; to Marilyn Goodrich for her help in preparing the manuscript; and, especially, to the many speakers of endangered languages with whom I have worked. 1 2 LANGUAGE, VOLUME 68, NUMBER 1 (1992) to ask, I think, whether there are also dangers inherent in the loss of linguistic diversity. This and other aspects of language endangerment in these times are addressed in the present collection of papers which, except for England's, were delivered at a symposium entitled 'Endangered Languages and their Preservation' held on January 3, 1991, as part of the 65th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America. It is in the nature of these essays that they are necessarily brief. We could not hope, therefore, to cover much of the ground which ultimately must be covered to advertise adequately the full range of factors that are relevant to an understanding of language loss and language maintenance. Fortunately, however, concern with these matters enjoys some currency both among linguists and among language communities, and voices are being heard with greater and greater clarity. The recent collection entitled Patrimoine culturel: Langues en péril appearing in Diogène No. 153 (1991

Archaeology · Diversity (politics) · Endangered species · Ethnology · Geography · Linguistics · Peninsula · Population · Safeguarding · Social science · Sociology · Anthropology · Demography · History · Language and cultural evolution · Multilingual Education and Policy

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