LING2003 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Tok Pisin, Language Death, Language Shift
Wednesday, 11 October 2017
LECTURE 20
LANGUAGE DEATH
-Some ideas from previous lectures
•Language contact: When languages come into contact, the languages themselves or individual/
group use of language change
-Example/
•Bilingualism/multilingualism
•Code-mixing/code switching
•Transfer, borrowing, reanalysis
-Lead to contact induced change
•Creation of contact language (pidgins, creoles, bilingual mixed languages)
•Language shift, loss or death
-Shift > Loss > Death
•Good to think of this in terms of a continuum since language death is usually a gradual process
•Language shift
-Decrease in domains occupied by one language and increase in domains used in other by
individuals or entire communities
•Ex/ Shift from Tok Pisin to English as a lingua franca in urban PNG; shift from Italian to English
in Australia
-At the level of the individual there may not be a complete shift - there may be a reduction in the
domains in which the language is used over time, such that the dominant language of that
individual changes over their lifetime
-At the microlevel there is often a complete shift over generations
•Fist generation migrants undergo a reduction in the domains of use of their L1 at the expense
of the community language, the 2nd generation may experience a further reduction, and then
by the third generation their may be a complete shift - i.e. language loss
-Gradual over generations
•Language loss
-An individual or community loses ability to use a code, but the code is still spoken elsewhere
•Language death at the micro level
!1
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Wednesday, 11 October 2017
-Loss of Hungarian in Oberwart, Austria but Hungarian still spoken in Hungary
-People may shift to a second language and as a result of this, over time, they may lose that
language
•Language death
-The last speaker or hearer of a language dies or does not use the language anymore
•Ex/ Death of Charlie Wardaga on Croker Island (Evans 2010)
-Languages which do not have a writing tradition are much more vulnerable
-Factors contributing to shift-loss-death (Holmes 2001)
•Factors which contribute to language death are very much non-linguistic
•Economic social and political factors
-Belief that success in another language is crucial to economic survival and advantage
•Risk of language shift, maybe not to the individual who learns another language for economic
advantage, but especially so in that individual’s children
-Globalisation and the rise of English as the language of business and modernity
•The internet plays a huge role in taking global languages such as English to more remote
places
-High costs of publishing materials, running schools, producing minority language media
-Political suppression: for example, ‘Spanish only’ policies in Franco Spain
-Official Language choices: for example, Bislama (Vanuatu) and Tok Pisin (PNG) given offical
language status
•Languages more likely to be maintained if they are given an official status
•Demographic factors
-Geographic isolation
•The more isolated, the more resistant to shift
•Ex/ Speakers of ‘Sa’ from Pentecost Island, Vanuatu
-Further from the city, more resistant to change
!2
Economic,(
social(and(
political
shift-loss-death
Demographic
Attitudes(&(
values
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Wednesday, 11 October 2017
-Size of community of speakers
•Both the quantity as well as the quality of interaction between speakers is critical
-Ex/ There must be events/rituals where speakers come together
-Concentration of speakers
•Speakers must be able to meet regularly, perform cultural rituals/traditions
-Intermarriage
•Ex/ Minority language speakers marry majority speakers but only speak majority language to
offspring
•Attitudes and values
-Language status
•Language is maintained if it has high international status and is linked to positive values
-Ex/ Romance languages associated with romance, money, class and soft melodic sounds
-Attitudes to linguistic diversity
•Ex/ Beliefs that language diversity impedes communication; world understanding would
increase if everyone spoke one language
-Monolingual mindset
•“The biggest impediment to the survival of small languages is the monolingual culture” (Evans
2010)
•Ex/ Both the minority and majority speakers mistakenly believe that there is only room for one
language
•Monolingualism is not the norm
-Language and culture
•If everyone recognises a language as a defining element of cultural identity/belonging, it is less
likely to die
-Positive attitudes and values are essential, but are not enough to prevent shift, loss or death
•Both speakers and non-speakers of language meed to recognise it as a critical element of
cultural identity and belonging
-Language death statistics
•Languages have been dying for as long as humans have used language to communicate
•It is not the process of language shift but the speed at which they are dying which is alarming
•Up to 90% of the world’s estimated 6000 languages face extinction within the 21st century (Krauss
1992)
!3
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Document Summary
Some ideas from previous lectures: language contact: when languages come into contact, the languages themselves or individual/ group use of language change. Example: bilingualism/multilingualism, code-mixing/code switching, transfer, borrowing, reanalysis. Lead to contact induced change: creation of contact language (pidgins, creoles, bilingual mixed languages, language shift, loss or death. Shift > loss > death: good to think of this in terms of a continuum since language death is usually a gradual process, language shift. An individual or community loses ability to use a code, but the code is still spoken elsewhere: language death at the micro level. Loss of hungarian in oberwart, austria but hungarian still spoken in hungary. People may shift to a second language and as a result of this, over time, they may lose that. Wednesday, 11 october 2017 language: language death. The last speaker or hearer of a language dies or does not use the language anymore: ex/ death of charlie wardaga on croker island (evans 2010)
