Policy and Planning for Endangered Languages

Description

Language policy issues are imbued with a powerful symbolism that is often linked to questions of identity, with the suppression or failure to recognise and support a given endangered variety representing a refusal to grant a 'voice' to the corresponding ethno-cultural community. This wide-ranging volume, which explores linguistic scenarios from across five continents, seeks to ignite the debate as to how and whether the interface between people, politics and language can affect the fortunes of endangered varieties. With chapters written by academics working in the field of language endangerment and members of indigenous communities on the frontline of language support and maintenance, Policy and Planning for Endangered Languages is essential reading for researchers and students of language death, sociolinguistics and applied linguistics, as well as community members involved in native language maintenance.

Mari C. Jones is Reader in French Linguistics and Language Change at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Peterhouse College. She has published extensively on language endangerment in relation to Norman, Welsh and Breton, and lectures internationally on language revitalisation. She is Fellow of the International Centre for Language Revitalisation (Auckland), Visiting Fellow at the University of Canterbury (Christchurch, New Zealand) and Visiting Professor at Otto-Friedrich-Universitat Bamberg, Germany.

'This volume adds to our understanding of endangered languages, with a diversity that provides evidence of the many ways that language activists can help preserve them.' Bernard Spolsky, Bar-Ilan University, Israel 'Why have language policies had only limited success in reversing language shift? The case studies presented in this volume show the effects of various language policies on a range of communities around the world. By understanding the successes and failures of different language policies, linguists and language activists can be better informed as to what type of language policy might have the greatest impact on a given community.' Bonny Sands, Northern Arizona University