Languagedeath

DAVID CRYSTAL

CAVTnRIDGE
UNIVERSITY PRESS
 Why do languagesdie?

middle estimateof the highestnumber of languages

in the world
3 Whydo languages
die? at any one time. Therearesome6,000languages now. But no one
knows how many languageshave come und gon.
within this
period, and how many newlanguagesto allow for,
to setoffagainst
the apparentlossof some6,000.Nor do we know
whetherthe rate
of languagechangehas been constantover these
long periods of
time, or punctuatedby periodsof rapid shift and
declin.,though
If peoplecareabout endangered languages, they will want some- the topic hasbeenmuch debated.3
thing to be done.But beforewe can decidewhat can or shouldbe Thereare very few historicalrecordsabout world
languageuse,
done,we needto understandthe reasonsfor the endangermentin apart from thosecollectedduring the period of European
colonial
the first place. Why, then, are languagesdying, and in such expansion,and most of them are sporadic,inconsistent,
and
numbers?And is the rate of languagedeathincreasing? impressionistic-Rathermore systematicmaterial
beganto be accu_
Languages havealwaysdied.As cultureshaverisenand fallen,so mulated with the developmentof comparativephilology
and the
their languageshaveemergedand disappeared.we can get some availabilityof population censusdata in the ninet..nth
century,
senseof it following the appearanceof written language,for we and the rise of anthropologyand linguisticsin
the twentieth;but
now have records (in various forms - inscriptions, clay tablets, eventhe lattersubjectdid not makemuch headwaywith
large_scale
documents)of dozensof extinct languagesfrom classicaltimes - scientificsurveysuntil the last quarter of that century.
The wide_
Bithynian,Cilician, Pisidian,Phrygian,Paphlagonian, Etruscan, spread view that languagedeath is rapidly increasing
is based
sumerian,Elamite,Hittite . . . we know of some75 extinct lan- largelyon generalreasoning:for example,we know
that therehas
guageswhich havebeenspokenin Europeand AsiaMinor.r But the been a significant growth in the nation-state in
the twentieth
extinct languagesof which we havesomehistorical record in this centurp with an associatedrecognition of official
languages;we
part of the world must be only a fraction of thoseforwhich we have know that therehasbeena significantgrowth in
internationaland
nothing. And when we extend our coverageto the whole world, global lingua francasduring the sameperiod; and
we can deduce
wherewritten recordsof ancientlanguagesare largelyabsent,it is that thesedevelopmentswill haveput minority languages
under
easyto seethat no sensibleestimatecanbe obtainedaboutthe rate increasingpressure.There are also some obserue,
accountsand
at which languageshavedied in the past.we can of coursemake informant recollections,chiefly gatheredsince
the 1960s,which
guesses at the sizeof the population in previouseras,and the likely allowus to quantifr rateof decline;statisticsabout
ihe numb.r, of
sizeof communities,and (on the assumptionthat eachcommu- speakersof different agesin different minority languages
(suchas
nitywould havehad its own language)work out possiblenumbers thoseillustratedin chapterl) would fall into ihis
category.These,
of languages. on this basis,Michael Krausshazardsthat 10,000 with just a few exceptions(seechapter4), tend to
showa steepen_
yearsago,assuminga world population of 5-10 million and an ing curve. But whether there is a real increasein
rate or not, the
averagecommunity size of 500-1,000, there must have been comparativeestimatesthat havebeenmadeof language
familiesin
between5,000 and 20,000languages.2 He opts for 12,000as a variousparts of the world tell the samestory: the
last 500yearshas
beena periodof dramaticdecline.Forexample,the
t This is the total of asterisked
items in theseparts of the world as listed in Voegelinand
numberof lan_
Voegelin(1977). 2 Krauss(1998:105). 3 This is the
centraltheme of Dixon (tgg7).

68
 70 LANGUAGE DEATH Why do languagesdie?
71
guagesspokenin Brazil in c. 1500AD has beenestimatedto be The number of a language's userscanbe seriouslyreduced,first
about I,175;todayit is lessthan 200.4 of all, by catastrophicnaturalcauses. Though accuratefiguresare
It is not possibleto come up with a singleexplanationfor this virtually impossibleto come by, it is evident
thut small commu-
decline;therearetoo manyfactorsinvolved,variouslycombiningin nities in isolatedareascan easilybe decimated
or wiped out by
diflferentregionalsituations:'The searchfor a singlecausewhich earthquakes, hurricanes,tsunamis,floods,volcaniceruptions,
inevitably leads to language death is futile.'s single-sentence and
other cataclysms.on L7 lury 199g,a 7.r (Richter)
answersto the '*hy'question will often be heard,especiallyin the earthquakeoff the coastof E. saundaun province,
magnitude
popularpress(e.g.the currentpreoccupationwith globalEnglishas rapuu New
Guinea,killed over2,200and displacedover
'the 10,000:the villagesof
cause'oflanguagedeath),but theyneverdo more than isolate sissano,warupu, Arop, and Marol were destroyed;
one of the issues.The full rangeof factorsis fairly easyto identifo, some 30o/o of
theArop and warupu villagerswerekilled.
The peoplein thesevil_
thanksto the manycasestudieswhich havenow beenmade;what is Iages had already been identified
bi Su--., Instirute of
impossible,in our currentstateof knowledge,is to generalizeabout Linguisticsresearchersas being sufficiently
different from each
them in global terms.The current situation is without precedent: otherin their speechto justifr the recognition
of four separate lan_
the world has neverhad so many peoplein it, globalizationpro- guages'but the matter was uniesolved:
accordingto Ethnologue
cesses haveneverbeenso marked;communicationand transport (1996),surveyswere neededin three
cases;some work was in
technologieshaveneverbeenso omnipresent;therehasneverbeen progressin the fourth. The numbers were
alreadysmall: sissano
so much languagecontact;and no languagehas everexercisedso had only 4,776in the 1990census,Malol
was estimatedto have
much internationalinfluenceasEnglish.How minority languages 3'330;Arop 1,700in l98l; and Warupu 1,602
in 19g3.The totals
fare,in suchan environment,is a matter of ongoingdiscovery.We for Arup and warupu will now eachbe at
least500less.But asthe
arestill at thestageof evaluatingthe roleof thesefactorswithin indi- villageswere destroyed,and the survivors
moved away to care
vidual countries- often,within restrictedlocationswithin coun- centresand other locations,there must now
be a real question_
tries. Trends are beginning to appear,but the limited database mark overwhetherthesecommunities(and
thus their languages)
makesthem tentative indeed. The following account, therefore, will survivethe trauma of displacement.
shouldnot be takenasrepresenting anyorderof precedence. Herewe havean instanceof the total destruction
of a habitat.In
other cases,the habitat may remain but
becomeunsurvivable,
through a combination of unfavourable
climatic and economic
Factors which put the people in physical danger conditions.Famineand droughtarethe two
chieffactors.The lrish
potatofamine(causedby the potatoblights
of 1g45_6)resultedin
Obviouslp a languagedies if all the peoplewho speakit are dead; I million deathsbetweenlg45 and rg5l and
thebeginningofalong
so any circumstancewhich is a direct and immediatethreat to the periodof emigration;a populationof g
million in r g4r hadbecome
physicalsafetyof some or all of a community is, in a way, the 6.5million a decadelater.The impactwasgreatest
in rural commu_
bottom line. Manylanguageshavebecomeendangered, moribund, nities,and as this was where Irish was chiefly
spoken,the famine
or extinct asa resultof factorswhich havehad a dramaticeffecton musthavehastenedthe declineof Irish at the
time.6Inmore recent
the physicalwellbeingof their speakers. times,especiallyin Africa, the statistics
of famine, often com-
a Rodrigues(1993).For other evidence the recency 6 For a
of of languageshift, in particular com- historical accountofthe various facto
munities,seeEngland(1998:105). s Dorian (1981:69). rs.contributing to the declineof lrish in
nineteenthcentury,seeEdwards(19g5: the
53
 72 LANGUAGE DEATH
poundedwith the resultsof civil strife, carryan obvious implica-
tion for the languagesspokenby the peoplemost affected.In the
1983-5Saheldrought in eastand southAfrica, uN agencies esti-
matedthat some22 million were affectedin over 20 countries.In
the 1991-2somaliadrought,a quarterof thechildrenunderthe age
of 5 died.In 1998,accordingto the uN world Food programme,
l0o/oof Sudan's29-million populationwereat risk of starvation,
chiefly in the south, the problem massivelyexacerbatedby the
ongoingcivil war.The faminemust alreadyhaveseriouslyaffected
the fragilelanguagetotalsfound in severalpartsof the country.of
the 132livinglanguages listedfor Sudanin Ethnologue(1996), there
areestimatesgiven for 122 of these,17 were reportedto haveless
than 1,000speakers; 54lessthan 10,000;and l05lessthan 100,000.
The historicaleffectof imported diseaseon indigenouspeoples
is now well established,though the extraordinary scaleof the
effects,in the earlycolonialperiod, is still not widely appreciated.T
within 200 years of the arrival of the first Europeansin the
Americas,it is thought that over900/o of the indigenouspopulation
waskilled by the diseases which accompaniedthem, brought in by
both animals and humans. To take just one area:the central
Mexico population is believedto have been something over 25
million in 1518,when the spanisharrived,but it had droppedto
1.6million by 1620.Someestimatessuggestthat rhepopulationof
the New world may have been as high as 100 million before
Europeancontact.within 200 yearsthis had dropped to lessthan
I million. The scaleof this disastercanonly be appreciatedby com-
paring it with others:it far exceedsthe 25 million thought to have
died from the Black Death in fourteenth-centuryEurope;it even
well exceedsthe combinedtotal of deathsin the two World wars
(some30-40 million).8
7 see McNeill (1976),
stearnand stearn (1945),Duft (t953), peat (1995:ch. 5). several
other parts of the world havea similar history: there were smallpoxepidemicsin South
Africa in 1713,1735,and 1767(the Dutch landed at the Capein losz)-. Seealso Kinkade
( 1 9 9 11
: 57).
E Castraltyfigures from
The Canfuridgeencyclopedia,3rd edn (Crystal, 1997c).An estimate
for the greater Amazonian region suggeststfiat it contained about 6.8 miliion people in
the l6th enturS and about 700,000by 1992:seeGrenandand Grenand (rqgtiq+j. rh.
Yana of Northern California had c. 1,900members in 1846,but within 20 yearsof the
arrival of white settlers,they were reducedto under 100:seefohnson (lg7g: i6D.
Why do languagesdie? 73
Lessferociousdiseases can,nonetheless havea devastatingeffect
on communitieswhich havebuilt up no resistanceto them. There
havebeenseveralreportsof influenza,eventhe common [sic]cold,
leading to the deathsof indigenousgroups - a risk which must
alwaysprey on the minds of the aid workers,anthropologists,mis-
sionaries,linguists,and otherswho work with them. Diseasehas
beenidentified as a critical factor in severalcases:- for example,
Andamanese (Pucikwar- down to 24 speakers in lggl ).eAIDS, of
course,is likely to havea greaterimpact on communitiesand lan-
guagesthan anythingelse.UNAIDS,the joint uN programmeon
HIV/AIDS,|Oreportsa world total of 33.4million affectedar the
end of 1998,with 95%oof all infectionsand deathsoccurringin
developingcountries:zL.s million in sub-SaharanAfrica,6.7
million in south and South-eastAsia, and 1.4 million in Latin
America- areaswhich togethercontainover three-quartersof the
world's languages.The rise of tuberculosis(which causes30o/o of
AIDS deaths)is a further factor. In the African countriesworst
affected- notably Botswana,Namibia, Swaziland,and Zimbabwe
- the diseasehas damaged a quarter of the population
aged
between15and 50. In thesefour countries,the effecton languages
will be limited, becausethere are relativelyfew languagesspoken
(c. 80 in all). But in, say,Nigeria,wheremany of its 470 languages
are spokenby tiny numbers,the effectof the epidemic,though so
far causingfewerdeaths(150,000in l99T),is bound to be dispro-
portionate.
The effectsof famine and diseaseare intimately relatedto eco-
nomic factors.There are now innumerablecaseson recordof the
safetyof a peoplebeingdirectly affectedby the economicexploita-
tion of their areaby outsiders. Desertification is the name givento
the environmentaldegradationof arid and semi-aridareasof the
world through overcultivation,overgrazing,cash-cropping(which
reducesthe land availablefor producing food crops for the local
people),deforestation,
and bad irrigationpractices,with changing
e Annamalai (
1998: l8). Intikul.2 carried a report of a linguist who had taken an interest
in the last two speakersof Gafat, Ethiopia, and was r..oiding their language;but once
th-.I..1! away from their own environment, they caught a cid and died.
.^
I0 Aids Epidenic Update(United Nations: UNAIDSi, December199g.
 74 Whydo languages
LANGUAGE DEATH die? 75
climaticpatterns(suchasEl Niflo) alsoimplicated.ronce theland assaults,andthreats to members of indigenouscommunities.
losesits fertility,it is unableto supportits population- a phenom- Partialfiguresindicatethat,duringthelastfiveyears, at least123
enon which was repeatedlyseenin Africa during the 1970sand members of indigenous groupshavebeenmurdered by members
1980s,when desertificationoccurred throughout the Sahel. of thenon-indigenous population in landdisputes.
with few
unpredictablemigrationstakeplace,in which communitiesfind it exceptions,no-onehasbeenbroughtto justicefor suchkillings.
Forexample, to dateno-onehasbeenbroughtto trialfor the
hard to preservetheir integrity, and traditional cultural - and lin-
massacre of 14members of theTicunatribein Amazonas in l9gg,
guistic- dependencies are broken. andfor themassacre of 14members of theyanomamivillageof
In parts of the world where indigenousnatural resourceshave Haximuon the BrazilNenezuelan borderin 1993.
beensubjectto outsideexploitation,the effecton the local people 'for
Rarelyhas the phrase example'carriedsuch unspokenreso-
hasbeendevastating, asis regularlydocumentedby humanrights nance.In caseswherea community hasbeendisplaced,many
organizations.The treatment of the communities of the of
the survivors,unwilling or unableto remainin their habitat,find
Amazonianrain-forestcontinuesto provide causefor interna-
their way to population centres,wherethey slowlylosetheir cultu-
tional condemnation.Despite decadesof effort to secureland
ral identity within a milieu of poverty.To survive,they acquire
rightsfor the indigenouspeoples,and givethem protectionagainst as
much as they can of a new language- in Brazil it would be
the aggression of ranchers,miners,and loggers,reportsof ethnic Portuguese, or one of the creolesspokenin the regionas lingua
murder and displacement are still common.An extractfrom one francas.The ethniclanguagetendsnot to outlasta generation- if
report publishedby Amnesty Internationalmust sufficeto repre-
the membersof that generationsurviveat all.
sentwhat is a depressingly largefile.r2This one refersto a govern- In somepartsof the world, it is thepolitical,ratherthan the eco-
ment decreewhich threatenedthe current demarcationof some
nomic, situationin a countrywhich is the immediatecauseof the
344indigenouslandsin Brazil:
decimationor disappearance of a community.The damagemaybe
sincethedecree waspassed, on g Januaryl996,severalnew the result of civil war, or of conflict on an internationalscale;for
invasions of indigenous landshavebeenreported. In thepast example,severalPacific and Indian ocean island communities
unscrupulous localpoliticians andeconomic interests
in manv were caughtup in the invasionsand battlesof the secondworld
states,oftenbackedby stateauthorities, havestimulatedthe
invasion of indigenous landsby settlers, war' with languageendangermentone of the outcomes(e.g.in the
minersandloggers,
playingon anyuncertainty aboutthedemarcation process. Andaman Islands).13 Long-standingethnic or religiousenmities
This
hasresulted in violentclashes andkillings.Theauthoritiesat all may be implicated,as in parts of Africa. BruceConnell,saccount
levelshaveconsistently failedto protectthefundamental human of the declineof the Mambiloid clusterof languages(of which
rightsof members of indigenous groupsor bringthose Kasabewasa member- seep. r) providesan illustration:ra
responsible for suchattacks to justice.
Themostcommonlyheldbeliefis thatthecomingof theFulani
whilstAmnestyInternational takesno positionon landdisputes, jihadduringthelgth century, thesubsequent enslavement
thehumanrightsorganization hascampaigned againsthuman of
rightsabuses .manyandthemassacring of resisters
scatteredanddecimated
sufferedby Brazil'sindigenous communities in theirpopulations, to thepointwheretheirlanguages wereno
recentyearsfrom thosecovetingtheirlandsandtheresources on longerviable.
them,who frequentlyactwith officialacquiescence or collusion.
AmnestyInternational hasrepeatedly calledon authoritiesat all 13Annamalai (1998:
23). Another conseqllenceof war is that archiverecordscan be lost:
in
levelsto put an endto thealmostuniversal impunityfor killings, the caseof Vanimo,in PapuaNew Guinea,all the vernacularlanguage
materialsproduced
','. by missionariesover many yearswere destroyedduring the ngniin!"ua*een
Cambridgeencyclopedia (Crystal, 1997c),entryon .desertification'. th;la;;;;;
'r !, and Allied armiesin the secondworld war. seeLandieer (isga,?s).
Report by Linda Rabbenfor the Amnesty InternationalNewsservice,25 ra Connell (1997
Ianuary 1996. 27).
 76 LANGUAGE DEATH Why do languagesdie?
The circumstances may amount to genocide.such claims have with the physicalsafetyof a people.The membersof the
commu_
beenmade concerningthe fate of the Nuba in Sudanand of the nity remain aliveand well, often continuing to inhabit
their tradi-
Ogoniin Nigeria.rs tional territory; but their languagenonetheless goesinto decline,
In manyplaces,it is difficultto disentangle
the politicaland eco- and eventuallydisappears,to be replacedby someother language.
nomic factors. The disappearanceof several languagesin The term most often encounteredin this connection
is cultural
Colombia,for example,hasbeenattributedto a mixtureof aggres- assimilation: onecultureis influencedbya more dominantculture,
sivecircumstances.r6 one strand highlightsa history of military and beginsto loseits characterasa resultof its members
adopting
conflict, in which several indigenous communities have been new behaviourand mores.This can happenin several
*uyr. rrr.
exterminated:some thirty languagesare known to have become dominancemay be the resultof demographicsubmersion-
large
extinct sincethe arrival of the Spanish.Today,the conflict is more numbers arrive in the community's territory, and
swamp tie
complex, involving regular,paramilitary, guerrilla, and criminal indigenouspeople- as has happenedrepeatedlyin the
(drug-related)forces,operatingin rural areas;membersof ethnic courseof
colonialism.Australia and North America are classic
instances.
communitiesfind themselves embroiledin the conflicts,often sus- Alternativelpone culture may exerciseits dominanceover
another
pectedby one of theseforcesof acting as collaboratorswith the without a hugeinflux of immigration,perhapsthrough
its initial
other(s).Anotherstrandhighlightsrheexploitationof smallcom- military superiorityor for economicreasons. Eitherway,language
munitiesby organizations both from within the country and from quickly becomesan emblem of that dominance,typically
tat i"g
outside,with reportedinstancesof slavelabour (for rubber pro- the form of a standard or official languageassociated
with the
duction alongthe Amazon) and of forcedmigrationsfrom rural incoming nation. Populationsize is not alwayscritical:
a smaller
areasto the cities.Whateverthe balanceof causes,the result has group can dominate a larger one - as was seenrepeatedly
in the
beenthe same- significantmortalityof thepeople,and short-term Europeanentry into Africa.
communitydisintegration. r7
Nor is geographicalproximity criticar, for one culture
to
influenceanother.Especiallyduring the twentieth century,
circles
of influencehavebecomewider and wider and, in the
caseof the
Factors which change the people's culture so-calledwestern consumerculture,now take in the whole
globe.
The factorsare well known.rsurbanization has produced
cities
The people may live, but the languagemay still die. The second which act asmagnetsto rural communities,and developments
in
clusterof factorscausinglanguagelosshasnothing directlyto do transport and communicationshavemade it easier
for country
people to reach them. within thesecities they have
r s B r e n z i n g e(r1 9 9 8 : 9 1 ) . 1 6S e i f a r (t 1 9 9 8 g immediate
: -t0).
17 For exarnple,it is thought accessto the consumer society,with its specifically
that the Andoke p.opi. were reducedfrom c. 10,000in l90g American
to c" 100bilingual speakersin the 1970s,asa result of their enslavementfor rubber exploi- biases, and the homogenizationwhich contaciof this kind inevita_
tation: seeLandaburu (1979).The seifart article (fn. l6 above)actually.rpr.rr.r ro..
bly brings. The learning of the dominant ranguage-
optimism for the sixty or so indigenouslanguagesstill spokenin Colombia. A national such as
organization now representsthe people'sinterestsat government level, and the l99l Spanishor Portuguese in SouthAmerica,Swahiliin much of East
Constitution for the first time gavethe languagesa levll of recognition, making them
official in their own territories, and guaranteeingbilingual educition there. HJwever, Africa,QuechuaandAymariiin theAndeancountries,and
English
there is still a pressing need for linguistic analysls of many of the languages,and foi
appropriateteachingmaterials- work that is chieflyproceedingat the Coiombian Centre rE see Babe (1997),
and-otherpapersin clichi (rgg7).The notion of .extreme
fo1 th9 Study of Indigenous Languages(Centro Colonrbiani de Estucliosde Lenguas dynamism,
as a characteristicof the age is the starting-point
Aborigines).See,ftirther, chapter 5. of Grenoble and whaley a6t;;,
Preface).
 78 LANGUAGE DEATH Why do languagesdie?
virtually everywhere- immenseryfacilitatesthis process.Even
if direction,emergingasthe resultof an interactionbetween
peoplestayin their rural setting,thereis no escape(except socio-
for the politicaland socioeconomic factorsthat areonly partlyrecognized
most isolatedcommunities),becausethe sametransportsystems
and understood.But whei'everthe pressurehas come
which carrycountry peopleinto the citiesare used.to convey frclm, the
con- result- stagetwo - is a period of emergingbilingualism,
sumerproductsand the associated aspeople
advertisingbackto their com_ become increasinglyefficient in their new language
munities. The centralizationof power within the metropolis while still
retainingcompetencein their old. Then, often quite quickly,
invariablyresultsin an inevitablelossof autonomy for local this
.o-_ bilingualismstartsto decline,with the old languagegiving
munities,and often a senseof alienationas they realizethat way to
they the new.This leadsto the third stage,in which the younger
areno longerin controlof their own destinies, gener_
and that localneeds ation becomesincreasinglyproficient in the new tunguug.,-iden_
arebeingdisregarded by distantdecision-makers. The languageof tifring more with it, and finding their first languageless
the dominant culture infirtrates everywhere,reinfor..J reievantto
by the their new needs.This is often accompaniedby a feeling
relentlessdaily pressureof the media,and especiallyof television- of shame
about using the old language,on the part of the parents
an effectwhich MichaelKrausshaslikenedto 'cultural nervegas,.re aswell as
their children. Parentsuse the old languageressand less
Traditionalknowledgeand practicesare quickly eroded.Herbert to their
children, or in front of their children; and when more
schiller reinforcesthe point referringto the way cultural homog_ children
come to be born within the new society the adults
enization is now threatening the entire globe, he comm.rrtr, find fewer
'Everywhere opportunitiesto usethat languageto them. Thosefamilies
local culture is facingsubmissionfrom the mass-pro- which
do continueto usethe languagefind thereare fewerother
duced outpouringsof commercialbroadcasting',and in a families
later to talk to, and their own usagebecomesinward-looking
book makesthe relevantreflection:2o and idio_
syncratic,resultingin 'family dialects'.outside the home,
the chil_
what doesit matterif a nationarmovement hasstruggled dren stop talking to each other in the language.
for within a
yearsto achieve
liberationif thatcondition,oncegainld,is generation- sometimesevenwithin a decade- a healthy
bilingual_
undercutby valuesandaspirations derivedfrom theapparently ism within a family can slip into a self-conscioussemilinguuiir-,
vanquisheddominator? and thenceinto a monolingualismwhich placesthat language
one
when one culture assimilatesto another,the sequenceof events stepnearerto extinction.2l
affectingthe endangeredlanguageseemto be the sameeverywhere. Global forcesbeing what they are, those concernedabout
the
There are threebroad stages.The first is immensepressureon future of endangeredlanguagesknow that it would
the be impossible
peopleto speakthe dominant language- pressurethat can nowadaysto influencethe factorswhich underlie the
come first stagein
from political,social,or economicsources.It might be 'top down,, this process.And the third stageis, for most languages,
too late. It
in the form of incentives,recommendations, is the secondstage- the stageof emergentbiliigualism -
or lawsintroducedby where
a governmentor nationalbody; or it might be'bottom up,, in thereis a real chanceto make progress.If the pro..r,
the of language
form of fashionabletrendsor peergroup pressures declineis to be sloweddown, stopped,or r.u.rr.d, this (as
from within the *e sfral
societyof which they form a part; or again,it might haveno clear see in chapters 4 and 5) is where attention must
be focused.
StephenWurm sumsit up in this way:
re Krauss(1992:6).
20 First quotation 2r Severalcommentators
from Schiller(1969:ll3); secondfrom Schiller(t976: l);see draw attention to the speedof this process:for example,
alsoBabe (1998: 102).For an exampleof the developmint 'family England
(tee7). of dialectsl,seeFurbee,Stanley,
and Arkeketa(1998: 77\.
 LANGUAGE DEATH
Many languages in dangerof disappearing todaywould not be in
this positiontodayif it werenot for the attitudesof most speakers
of the largemetropolitanlanguageswith whom they are in
contact,with most of thosefirmly believingthat monolingualism
is the normal and desirablestatefor peopleto be in and who, in
consequence, put the speakersof suchendangered languages
beforean either/orchoiceregardingtheir language: eitherto
adopttheir metropolitanlanguage, or to remainoutsidethe
advantages stemmingfrom its masteryin the culture in which
their metropolitanlanguageis dominant.Theseattitudes.. .
completelydisregardthe possibilityof speakersof such
endangered languages beingbilingualin their own languageand a
givenlargemetropolitanlanguage,and asa resultof culturaland
socialpressurefrom the monolingualmetropolitanculture,this
possibility rarelyoccursto the speakersof the endangered
minority languages.22
Why is this stageso important?It is because bilingualismoffers
a modusvivendibetween the dominantand dominatedlanguage-
an option for coexistence without confrontation.This is possible,
in principle,becausethe reasonsfor the presenceof the two lan-
guagesare totally different. The dominant languageis attractive
because it facilitatesoutwardmovementfrom the indigenouscom-
munity; therearenew horizonswhich membersof the community
wish to reachtowards,newstandardsof living to be achieved,a new
qualityof life to be pursued.(l do not considerit part of my brief,
in this book, to reflecton whether this new life is better or worse
than the old one.)The dominantlanguageis necessary becauseit
-
providespeoplewith a bridgebetweenthe two worlds an intelli-
gibility bridge,without which their progresswould be negligible.
The dominatedlanguage,by contrast,hasquite anotherrole. By
definition, it hasno valueasan internationalor interculturallingua
22 Wurm (1998: 193*4). The issuemay alsonot occur to the speakersof the metropolitan
language.As we haveseenin chapter2 (p.45), monolingual peoplearenot usedto think-
ing about bilingualism as an asset,offering its speakersbroader mental horizons, larger
dimensionsof knowledge,greaterflexibility of thought, and greaterunderstandingand
toleranceof socialdifferences.It simply is not part of their mindset.They are not against
bilingualism,as such;rather,by being part of a long colonialisttradition, monolingual-
ism has come to be the natural way of life. Few of the peoplein my own socialmilieu to
whom I have introduced the notion of bilingualism as a benefit or a solution are against
the idea: it iust had not occurredto them.
Wy do languagesdie?
8l
franca;it cannot facilitatecommunication betweenpeoples;it
is
not outward-looking.It is therefor the oppositereason:to express
the identity of the speakersas membersof their community. It
is
inward-looking- but in the bestsense(seechapter2) - fostering
family ties,maintaining socialrelationships,preservinghistorical
links,giving peoplea senseof their 'pedigree'(p. 4r). The domi-
nant languagecannotdo this:23it hasits own identity;thosewho
speakit asa mother tonguehavetheir own pedigree.only the
dom-
inatedlanguagecan refreshthe identity of an indigenouscommu_
nity - the part that other languagescannotreach.
But for this to happen,the terminologyof .domination'must
disappear.Healthy bilingualism is a statein which two languages
areseenascomplementary,not in competition- fulfilling different
roles,with eachlanguagebeing seenin a rewardinglight.2a
Labels
suchas'dominated'hardlyhelp fosterthe positiveattitudeswhich
areneeded;and, when it comesto endangeredlanguages,attitude
is what counts- how peoplelook at their language,and what
they
feelabout it when they do. If speakerstakepride in their language,
enjoy listening to others using it well, use it themselveswhenever
they can and ascreativelyasthey can,and provide occasionswhen
the languagecanbe heard,the conditionsare favourablefor main_
tenance.stage z, in such a setting, is likely to last a long
time.
conversely'if peopleareembarrassed to usetheir languageirit.h
into the dominant languagewhenevertheycan,tell jokeswhere
the
speakerof the endangeredlanguageis the butt, and avoidoccasions
where the languageis celebrated,then stage2 is likely to last
for
only a short time. Fosteringpositivelanguageattitudesis, accord-
ingly, one of the most important initiativesto be achieved
in the
taskof languagepreservation(see,furthet chapter4).
Languagesdecline when thesepositive attitudes are missing.
And in so manycasesthey aremissing.The climateis against
theri,
" gnly at the point where-peoplehave completelylost their senseof identification with
their ethnic.originswill the new langurg. off., an alternative
.ni .o-fortable Intuistic
which point, the cultural a-ssiirilationwould U. .ornpl.t.t.
,. l:T:,1.,
" MultilingLlalismwas describedas mankind't state,in ih.pt., 2. For a compre_
yjyrl
hensivedebunking o.fthe myths associatedwith bilinguarir-,
."Jln enryclopedic guide
to its strengths,seethe referencesin ch. 2.fn.45.
82 LANGUAGE DEATH
often for political reasons.For example,most of the governments
of Africa would seelinguistic diversityasa threat to national unity
- to the task of building a nation.2sMinorities are a sourceof
concernto thesegovernmentsbecauseof the well-attestedhistory
of ethnic conflict throughout the region. The members of the
government in power themselvesoften belong to a particular
ethnic group. Proposalsto strengthenethnic statusor loyalty can
'thus be treatedwith suspicion;and because languageis so closely
bound up with ethnic identity,proposalsto strengthenminority
languagescan be especiallysuspect.Indeed,it is quite possiblefor
an indigenouscommunity to be put in dangersimply by allowing
outsidersin to recordtheir language.26 The authoritiestend to be
nervous- and perhapswith cause,for sociopoliticaloutcomesare
never predictable,and there are many known casesof languages
beingusedastoolsof resistance againstoppressive regimes,or asa
meansof communicatinginformation secretlyin wartime.2T The
powerful role of languageas a way of fomenting revolution was
recognizedby the first slavetraders,who deliberatelymixed people
with different languagebackgrounds in the ships bound for
America,so that they could not communicateeffectivelywitheach
other. A similar initiative led to Indian tribes with different lan-
guagebackgroundsbeingplacedtogetheron reservationsin North
America, so that they were forced to learn English.2sAnd myths
still abound:in one report, a Colombianarmyofficer describedthe
Embera,a Pacificcoastalpeople,as simply having made up their
languagein order to confusewhite people.2e
Open antipathyis not found everywhere.In SouthAmerica,for
2s But not, notably, Eritrea, which has gone so far asto refuseto assign
official status to any
ofits languages. 26 Brenzinger(1998:89).
27 A little-known fact is that American Indian languageshave
beenusedin this way: during
both World Wars, members of at least seventeentribes served as 'code talkers' for US
forces in Europe and the Pacific, including a large number of Navajo who worked with
US Marinesin the SecondWorld War: seePaul (1973),Bixler ( 1992).In 1999a campaign
was underway to have the US government recognize their special service through the
28 Kinkade (1991: 157).
award of Medals of Honor.
2e Seifart(1993:9). Note alsothis comment in a newspaperreport on the
situation of some
of the Khoisanpeoplesof SouthernAfrica (Koch and Maslamoney,1997):'Farmersand
employersthreaten people who use Khoekhoegowap[Nam] because,in a paranoia that
is common to all oppressors,they believethe speakersare plotting subversion.'
Why do languagesdie? 83
example,indigenouslanguages arenot usuallyconsidereda threat
to national unity, presumablybecausethe stateshavehad much
longer to becomeestablished.The attitude there is more one of
indifferencethan antagonism.3OThe antipathymay alsotakemore
subtleforms.Peoplefind theyhavefeweropportunitiesto usetheir
language,becauseit has been officially marginalized. rt is not
found in official domains, such as the local offices of the civil
serviceand the local banks.It is not found in the media.It is not
found as the languageof highereducation:for example,none of
the 1,200or so languages indigenousto Africa is currentlyusedas
a medium of instruction in secondaryschoolsthere.3rThe lan-
guagegraduallydisappearsfrom the 'serious'sideof life, with relig-
ion usuallythe last domain to be affected.Its presencemay still be
strongin somedomains,suchasthe arts,popularentertainment,
and folklore,but theseareperceivedto be domainswith lessstatus.
From a political point of view,the languageis becominginvisible.
AmericansociolinguistJoshuaFishmanoncereferredto this state
of affairsasthe 'folklorization'of a language- the useof an indig-
enouslanguageonly in irrelevantor unimportantdomains.32 And
with eachlossof a domain, it shouldbe noted,there is a lossof
vocabulary,discoursepatterns,and stylisticrange.It is easyto see
how a languagecould eventuallydie, simply because,havingbeen
denudedof most of its domains,thereis hardly anysubject-matter
left for peopleto talk about,and hardly anyvocabularyleft to do it
with. It becomesa form of behaviourfamiliar only to the enthu-
siast,the specialist,and the seekeraftercuriosities.It lacksprestige.
This is the chief reasonwhy eventhoselanguageswith verylarge
numbersof speakersmay not be safe,in the long run: their status
30Adelaar( 1998:
9). Indifference,of course,is no help, becauseif nothing is being done to
counter a declining trend, the situation will simply deteriorate.Lessobviously, eien polit-
ical support for an endangeredlanguagemight not changepublic attitudes, if .*p.ri.n..
has fostered in local people the view that the government is not to be trusted oi that
its
3r Brenzinger(t99g:
-12 motivesare suspect. 95).
Fishman (1987)' Others have talked about languagesbeing'deprived'of domains:
see
Bamgbose(1997). T!: yul languagescan becomi invisible isllustrated for India
by
Annamalai ( 1998:20ff., 30), who also refers to the way a language'sstatus can be altered
as an effectof censustaking. The identity of a languageis Imiediately obscured,
as a
political reality, if its speakers are lumped togetherwith Jthers under somegeneral
'variety' census
heading,or included as a of a mori dominant language.
 LANGUAGE DEATH Whydo languages
die? 85
may be graduallyerodeduntil no one wantsto usethem. In south givencorporalpunishment - threeto fivestrokesof thecaneon
America, Quechua and Aymar6, in all their varieties,currently thebarebuttocks- or wasmadeto carrya metalplatearoundthe
havewell over a million speakers each;but urban migration to the neckwith inscriptionssuchasI AM STUPIDor I AM A
coastalcities of Peru is significantly reducing the figure, with DONKEY.sometimes theculpritswerefinedmoneytheycould
hardlyafford.And howdid the teachers catchtheculprits?
A
peopleshiftingto Spanish.33 Thiswould not besoseriousif thelan-
buttonwasinitiallygivento onepupilwhowassupposed to hand
guagewasbeing strongly maintainedin rural areas;but attitudes
it overto whoeverwascaughtspeaking hismothertongue.
are reportedto be changingthere.The indigenouslanguagesare whoeverhadthebuttonat theendof thedaywouldsingwho
being viewed by their speakers as a sign of backwardness,or as a hadgivenit to him andtheensuingprocess wouldbringout all
hindranceto making improvementsin socialstanding.They have theculpritsof theday.Thuschildrenwereturnedinto witch-
no confidence in them. The negative attitudes may be so huntersandin theprocess werebeingtaughtthelucrativevalue
of beinga traitorto one'simmediatecommunity.
entrenchedthat even when the authorities get around to doing
somethingabout it - introducing community projects,protective similar experienceshave been reported from many parts of the
measures,or official languagepolicies- the indigenouscommu- world, and not only in relation to English;for example,French,
nity maygreettheir effortswith unenthusiasm, scepticism,or out- Spanish,and Portuguesepoliciesof suppressionwere common in
right hostility. Africa and Latin America;the fapanesesuppressed Ainu in |apan.
But peoplehaveto get their negativeattitudesfrom somewhere. Indigenouslanguages would be prohibitedin missionsand board-
one isn't born with feelingsof shameand a lack of self-confidence ing schools.wales had the welsh Not, known especiallyin the
about one'slanguage.where do they come from? In virtually all nineteenth century. This was a piece of wood or slate with the
cases,they are introduced by a more dominant culture, whose letters '\AIN' cut into it, hung round the neck of a pupil caught
membersstigmatizethe peoplein such termsasstupid,lazy,and speakingwelsh; it would be passedon to anotherheard using the
barbaric(often,despitethe evidenceof greatartisticachievements language,and the one wearing it at the end of the day would be
in the people'spast,as in the caseof the Mayasand Aztecs),and punished.Irelandhad a similarpractice.In other places,washing
their languageas ignorant, backward,deformed, inadequate,or the mouth out with soapwaspopular:asa Tlingit man from Alaska
even (in the caseof some missionaries)a creationof the devil. put it -'whenever I speakTlingit, I can still tastethe soap.'36
But
Akira Yamomoto quotes a typical statement,made by u nine- whateverthe mechanism,the resultwasthe same:a growing sense
teenth-centurycommissionerof Indian affairs in the USA: 'The of inferiority or shame about one's language,a reluctanceor
instructionof the Indiansin the vernacularis not only of no useto embarrassment to usethe languagefor fearof evokingfurther con-
them, but is detrimentalto the causeof their educationand civil- demnation, and a natural desire to avoid having one,schildren
ization.'34Theseattitudesare then reinforcedthrough the intro- exposed to the same experience.If people believe, rightly or
duction of practiceswhich penalizethe useof the local language. wrongly, that it is their ancestrallanguagewhich has kept them
Kenyanauthor Ngugi wa Thiong'o recalledsuchexperiencesfrom down, or that they wereheld back from socialadvancementby an
his schooldays,when Englishwasthe educationalnorm:3s inability to speakthe dominant languagewell, it is not surprising
oneof themosthumiliatingexperiences to find them antipathetictowardspreservation,and unsupportive
wasto becaught
speakingGikuyuin thevicinityof theschool.Thecurpritwas
16The exampleis from Dauenhauerand Dauenhauer(1998:65). This alsocontains
liru1,
a useful discussion of.the factors underlying negativeattitudes in indigenour f.ngurg.
' 3 3A d e l a a r ( 1 9 9 8 : 6 ) . 3 aY a m a m o t o ( 1 9 9 8 a : 2 1 5 ) . 3 s
NgugiwaThiong,o(19g6:ll). use.seealso,for North America, Mithun (199s:lg2). For Ainu, seesawai (tqga: isri
86 LANGUAGE DEATH
when languagemaintenanceprojectsare in place (such as in
schools).And when this view is reinforcedby the opinionsof the
young peoplethemselves- who may also seethe old languageas
irrelevantor a hindrance,andthink of the olderpeoplewho do still
speakit asbackwardor ignorant- it is only to be expectedthat neg-
ativeattitudespervadethe whole of a communiry.3T
The deliberateattempt by speakersof one languageto crush
those of another has often been attested,and when there is evi-
dencethat this hastakenplace,suchasat variouspointsin colonial
history, some authorshavefelt the need to usesuitably dramatic
language, talkingabout'languagemurder'or'linguicide'.The way
antagonismcanbe focusedon a languagehasbeenpowerfullycap-
tured by Harold Pinter,in his play Mountain language(1988,Act
I), whereat onepoint an officeraddressesa group of women in this
way:
Nowhearthis.Youaremountainpeople. Youhearme?Your
language is dead.It is forbidden.It is not permittedto speakyour
mountainlanguage in thisplace.Youcannotspeak yourlanguage
to yourmen.It is not permitted.Do youunderstand? Youmay
not speakit. It is outlawed. Youmayspeakonlythelanguage of
thecapital.Thatis theonlylanguage permittedin thisplace.You
will bebadlypunished if youattemptto speak yourmountain
languagein thisplace.Thisis a militarydecree. It is thelaw.Your
languageis forbidden.It is dead.No oneis allowedto speakyour
language. Yourlanguage no longerexists.
Thoseareindeedthe tonesof languagemurder.However,the point
has also beenmade that this terminology is not alwaysappropri-
ate:facedwith a situationwherepeoplemakea consciousdecision
to stop using their language,or not to passit on to their children,
seeingit as an intolerableburden, a better descriptionmight be
'language
suicide'.This certainlyseemsto be more often the case
in settingswhereEnglishis the desirablegoal- which is one reason
37 It should alsobe mentionedthat negativeattitudesareeasilyreinforced
through repeated
casualreferenceto a language'sendangeredstate,especiallywhen the remarksare made
by outsiders. It is difficult to instil enthusiasm for preservation among community
members if they are continually being told that their languageis 'dying' or even already
'dead'.
According to Sawai(1998: 185),this was a factor in the declineof Ainu.
Whydo languages
die? g7
why talk of English as a 'killer language' is a gross over-
simplificationof a complexsituation.38 The effectsof a dominant
languagevary markedlyin differentparts of the world, asdo atti-
tudestowardsit. In Australia,the presenceof Englishhas,directly
or indirectly,causedgreatlinguistic devastation,with 90o/o of lan-
guagesmoribund. But Englishis not the languagewhich is domi-
nant throughoutLatin America:if languages are dying there,it is
not through any 'fault' of English.Moreover, the presenceof a
dominant languagedoesnot automaticallyresultin a 9}o/oextinc-
tion rate.Russianhaslong beendominant in the countriesof the
formerUSSR,but therethe destructionof locallanguages hasbeen
estimatedto be only (sic)50o/o.3e
Another aspectof the complexityis the way in which the pres-
ervation of an endangeredlanguagemay actuallybe aidedby the
growing presenceof the dominant languagewithin a region,in
that it forcesthe speakersto confront the situation in which they
find themselves,and may generategreaterlevelsof support for
revitalizationthan would otherwisebe the case.A classiccaseis the
dramaticsupport givento welsh,which led to the formation of the
welsh LanguageSociety(cymdeithasyr Iaith Gymraeg)in 1962,
and a number of activistmeasures, most famouslyin 19g0,when
the commencementof a fastto the deathby Gwynfor Evans,leader
of the welsh nationalist party plaid cymru, forced the govern-
ment to honour electionpledgeson a Welshtelevisionchannel.a0
And in south America, the l99z quincentennialcommemoration
of the arrival of the spanishprompted a wide rangeof activitiesin
supportof indigenousrights.4r
when another languageis perceivedto be so desirableand
useful,it is hardly surprisingthat peoplewant to learn it; and if it
helpsthem get on in life, this is obviouslya good thing. The argu-
38 For a sensible
discussionof terms such as.murder',,persecution',and .suicide,inrelation
to language'seeEdwards(1985: 5l-3). While there are some caseswhere
the terms are
metaphoricallyappropriate,his conclusion should be noted: 'Discussions
of language
decline and death would do well to avoid terms like "mlrrder" and "suicide"
gd to emphasisethe complexities of social situations in which thesephenom.rr.
"rto!?ifiir,
"^ Krauss(1992:5).
3e 6...r..i
a0 For a historical review,
seeBellin (1934).
ar Grinevald (1998:
l4D.
88 LANGUAGE DEATH
ment is not that peopleshouldnot learna metropolitanlanguage.
confrontationbetween
The argumentis that there is no necessary
this new languageand the old. The pride which everyonefeels
when they succeedin acquiring a new languageshould not make
them any lessproud of the languagethey alreadyhave.If a bilin-
gual ethos were more manifest in the metropolitan community,
then therewould be far lessvoluntaryabandonmentof language
by indigenousspeakers,and the terminology of threat would not
be aswidespreadas it currently is.a2
Conclusion
Many factorscontributeto the phenomenonof languagedeath,so
the diagnosisof pathologicalsituationsis alwaysgoing to be
complex.Sociolinguistshavetried to identifr a singlemajor factor
to explainthe way peopleshift from one languageto another,but
all suchattemptshavebeencontroversial.For example,one propo-
salidentifiesthe needfor peopleto acquirethe dominant language
in order to get a good job (or to ensurethat their childrenget a
good job): it is a plausiblehypothesisin many areas(it certainly
explainsthe kind of caseillustratedby -y |ohannesburganecdote,
p. l3), but it maybe lessrelevantin others,wherethe type of edu-
cationalsystem,the presence of the media,or the natureof politi-
calpressures canbe more importantconsiderations. Languages are
not like people,in this respect:it is not usuallypossibleto write a
singlecauseon the deathcertificatefor a language.
Becausethereareso many factorsinvolved,a languagedoesnot
usuallydie out uniformly. It might be disappearingin one location
but not (yet) in others, for a range of different reasons.Some
countrieshavecreatedlocationsfor cultural conservation- such
as reservationsor protected areas- where a languagemight be
quite healthy,though rapidly dying out elsewhere.Sometimes,the
a2 In the absenceof this ethos,in most developedcountries,there is the irony that the more
languagesyou have,the more likely you are low down in the social hierarchy.Hale ( 1995:
5) is among thosewho has observedthis, in his work with the Ulwa of Nicaragua:the
Twahka people, at the bottom ofthe social order, need five languagesin order to get by.
Whydo langunges
die? g9
variation in vitality has come about through variationsin the
history of natural settlemenil in colombia, the people of the
mountainspreservetheir languages betterthan thoseof the low-
lands and rainforests;in Ireland, the western seaboardregion
known asthe Gaeltachthasa strongerconcentrationof Irish than
elsewhere.a3 catastrophiceventsaside,language deathis a gradual
and varied process,with the general trends affecting different
membersor sectionsof a community in differentways.This is one
of the reasonswhy a community usuallydoesnot realizethat its
languageis in dangeruntil too late.
Someof the factorswhich we havereviewedaboveare uncon-
troversiallyfinal, in their causativerole: there is no arguingwith a
tsunami.But with the rangeof cultural factors,it is possibleto see
severaloutcomes,dependingon the nature of a country'shistory
and circumstances, its languagepolicies(if it has any), and the
extentto which planning strategiesarebeingresourcedand imple-
mented.A significantdemographicgrowth within an indigenous
community can make more people availableto use a language
(though this factor becomesotiose if parentalattitudesare anti-
pathetic).Therewill be a more positiveoutcompif the community
hasa strong senseof cultural or religiousidentity endogamous
marriagepractices,or a vibrant crafts or literary tradition. The
community'sability to makeits presencefelt in the local mediacan
be important - it wasa major factor in the reversalof the decline
of welsh, for example.The bringing in of outsiderscan be a help
or a hindrance,dependingon the extentto which their presenceis
viewedas a (religious,cultural, political) threat.And the remote-
nessof the community from other groupsis a critical issue.Indeed,
somesaythat the only way for a smalllanguageto surviveis for its
speakers to remain in isolation- a rare option, nowadays.
The forceswhich causelanguagedeath are so massivethat it is
difficult to seehow any of them could be reversed.The prospectin
a fewhundred yearsof just one languageper nation, and then just
one languagefor the whole world, which severalscholarshave
a3 For colombia,
seeseifart (199s); for lreland, see|ohn Edwards(19s5:53ff.); for the
similar situation in the scottish Gaeltacht,seewatson (1991:4l-59).
 LANGUAGE
asserted,is indeed real.aa
It is likely that therewill be somedegree
of renewalof the languagestock,of course,through the develop-
ment of new languages:aswe haveseenin chapterI (p. 9), some
of the new varietiesof Englishmay,in the courseof time, become
sufficiently distinct to be justifiably called separatelanguages
(scots,Ebonics,AustralianAboriginal English,singlish,etc.).The
forceswhich are currently making Serbian,Croatian,and Bosnian
increasinglydifferentfrom eachother could one day- though it is
a long way off- producethree mutually unintelligiblelanguages.
And new pidginsand creolesarealwaysemerging.But therearenot
many exampleslike this. As Michael Krausshasput it: 'We cannot
look forward to rediversificationto compensateto any significant
degreefor the loss.'asBut he adds:'However,the degreeof that loss
can be affectedby our responseto the threat. The difference
betweenthe bestand worst scenarios,saylossof half [the world,s
languages] and lossof 95o/o, is still very great.'Indeedit is. And it
is the growing realizationthat a responseto the threat is possible
which hasmotivatedthe enormousrangeof activitiesreportedin
chapters4 and 5.
aa For example,Dixon (1997:
140,l4B). a5 Krauss(199g:106).
DEATH
4 Wheredo we begin?
Facedwith a problem of suchworldwide scale,and sucha limited
time frame in many instances,the needfor cool, careful,and co-
ordinatedaction is evident.There are now enoughcasestudiesof
revitalizationfrom around the world to showthat languagelossis
not alwaysinevitable.A greatdeal can be done - and alreadyhas
been done - by indigenouscommunities,local support groups,
and outside bodies. Professional linguistic concern grew
significantlyduring the 1990s,as has been noted in the Preface.
International awareness of languagerights also took a significant
step forward in that decade,notably with the formulation of the
BarcelonauniversalDeclarationof LinguisticRights.tAt the same
time, the increasedattention has resultedin the true complexities
of the situationbeginningto be unravelled.The notion of language
maintenanceis rarelyasstraightforwardasit seems.Eventhe rela-
tively transparent task of making a linguistic recording of an
endangeredlanguageturns out to havemany hidden pitfalls. We
thereforeneedto reviewthe situationasa whole,without minimiz-
ing the difficulties.As one researchteamhasremarked:2
Theparadoxicalsituationis thatthelanguages will certainlydie
unlesswedo something; but,therealityis thattheymayalsodie
evenif wedo something.Therefore, whatdo wedo?
The remainderof this book triesto answerthat question.Sowhere
do we begin?
I A document prepared over a two-year period, promoted
by the International PEN Clubt
Translations and Linguistic Rights Committee and the Escarr€International Centre for
Ethnic Minorities and Nations, with the moral and technical support of UNESCO, and
published following an international conferencein 1996, at which nearly ninety states
were represented.Discussionabout its content was still ongoing at the time of writing, as
work continued towards the goal of making it an International Convention of the United
Nations. SeeAppendix for contact details.
2 Dauenhauerand Dauenhauer(1998:78).
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