ENDANGERED LANGUAGES AND ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION AMONG MINORITY COMMUNITIES IN EUROPE: AN ECOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

The Public, the Private and the Commons. Challenges of a Just Green Transition: Proceedings from the Summer School of Political Ecology 2024, 2024

According to the statistics regarding the endangerment of languages, a very high percent of the languages of the world are in danger of extinction. Some estimations state that approximately 90% of the 6,000-7,000 languages spoken today will be extinct in 100 years if the processes of language change and language loss continue at the present pace. According to others, this rate is around 50%. This raises the question of language revitalization and of reversing language shift. My paper aims to present the newest trends in language revitalization theory and practices with a special regard to globalization and linguistic human rights from the sociolinguistic and ecolinguistic perspective. The paper also aims to give an overview of the Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale which provides a more detailed description of the level of endangerment of the particular languages.

2013

Attitudes to endangered languages is the result of more than ten years of research into language endangerment based on fieldwork on Britain's periphery-the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. Although the title and subtitle suggest a broad treatment, the book is not in fact a general overview of or theoretical approach to the topic. Its focus is on three separate case studies, which are discussed in the second part of the book. The book starts with a comprehensive introduction to the field of study in Ch. 1; Ch. 2 then gives the sociocultural and political background of the islands studied, and Ch. 3 is devoted to the study of language attitudes and ideologies. After these three introductory chapters, the book shifts its focus to language endangerment and revitalization efforts on the Isle of Man, Guernsey, and Jersey. Ch. 4 discusses language practices, Ch. 5 language attitudes and language ideologies, and Ch. 6 language planning and policy. Chs. 4 to 6 are thus an application of Spolsky's (e.g. 2004) well-known and useful tripartite division of language policy. Investigating how practices, beliefs, and management of languages interact constitutes an important heuristic means to understand trajectories of languages and their speakers in the dynamic setting of changing language ecologies. The sociopolitical setting of the three case studies deserves attention. All three islands feature their own distinct languages and enjoy far-reaching autonomy, being self-governed dependencies of the British Crown. In Guernsey and Jersey, the Oïl languages Jèrriais and Guernesiais, respectively, are spoken. On the Isle of Man, the Celtic language Manx is spoken. The level of endangerment differs between the three cases. Jèrriais and Guernesiais are considered severely endangered today, whereas Manx is considered critically endangered after having been dormant (or 'extinct') for three decades (Moseley 2010). There are a number of important lessons to be learned from Ch. 2, most notably from the discussion of small islands and 'imagined communities'(41-42). This is largely uncharted territory in language endangerment studies, and the discussion of a number of factors impacting on language vitality, such as war, evacuation, and repatriation on some of the islands, is also very instructive. The fact that all three languages are endangered despite the political autonomy of the three islands is not fully discussed. I would have liked to know more details about how negative views of the indigenous languages have entered these islands, how they were spread and reproduced, and by whom, when, and why. Ch. 3 is dedicated to the study of language ideology and language attitudes. It focuses by and large on what publications on language endangerment have to say. In particular, expanding the approach of language ideology for the study of language endangerment would have been desirable. The study of language ideology engages not only in ideas about language structure and use, but also in the background from which ideology emerges in the first place, and the processes concerning how ideology is normalized and spread as being 'commonsensical'. In fact, the entire book could have benefited from including more consideration from neighboring disciplines such as sociology or political science. Chs. 4 to 6 constitute the core of the book. They relate Sallabank's fieldwork results to other cases of language endangerment. Her discussions of language shift and language revitalization refer mainly to the theoretical work done by Fishman (1991, 2001). In these chapters, S demonstrates detailed knowledge of her field of study, gained though numerous visits, during which she conducted surveys and interviews and also learned to speak Guernesiais fluently. Her observations of and participation in these language ecologies enable her to give detailed accounts of language use, ideology, and management. There are too many insights to cover in a brief review, but the following examples can be listed: phatic communication plays an important role in grassroots language revitalization efforts (85); among some speakers, fear of language change appears to be greater than that of language extinction (137); language loss (loss of proficiency) in speakers deepens over the course of language shift (96)-loss is not just between generations but is within individual speakers as well; there is playful language use of endangered languages, which places 964 LANGUAGE, VOLUME 91, NUMBER 4 (2015)

2012

Minority Languages in the Linguistic Landscape provides an innovative approach to the written displays of minority languages in public space. It explores minority language situations through the lens of linguistic landscape research. Based on very tangible data it explores the 'same old issues' of language contact and language conflict in new ways. It deepens our understanding of language policies, power relations and ideologies. The chapters cover a wide geographic area, ranging from Sámi in the far North, to Basque, Catalan and Corsican in the South. From the town of Dingle on the West coast of Ireland to the cities of Kiev and Chisinau in the East of Europe, including the contrasting cases of Israel and Brunei. Combining theoretical approaches from various disciplines to provide a framework which connects real bottom-up data with more abstract research on minority languages, this book will be useful for researchers and students in applied linguistics, sociolinguistics and policy sciences, as well as for policy makers.

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.

International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2012

This paper argues for a new perspective on the study of language endangerment dynamics where diversity serves not only as a yardstick for assessing equality, but represents the very basis of equality. To this end, we propose a unified framework accounting for the ecology of languages and language diversity loss. Different ways of economically organizing communities result in power differentials. In cases of contact between them, the language ecologies of the less powerful communities are disrupted through language shift and attrition processes. While these processes have taken place in all competitive language ecologies across time and space, two major waves of language diversity loss can be attested. The first wave began 11,000 years ago following the Neolithic revolution when agrarian societies expanded into the territories of hunter-gatherer communities. The second wave was initiated by the French Revolution when dynastic realms transformed into modern states. The promotion of linguistic nationalism and social mobility in societies imagined to be linguistically homogenous undermined the value and utility of minority languages. Two basic possibilities exist for maintaining linguistic diversity: one is limiting contact to dominating communities; another is finding ways of regulating inter-community relations by mechanisms that do not rely on power alone. Ongoing processes in glocalizing societies suggest that a combination of both options may become a viable way to halt language diversity loss.

SEEU Review

This article analyses the overall development of the endangered language around the world in reference to UNESCO’s Atlas of World Endangered Languages and reflects on the local context. The focus to local context refers to the current territory of North Macedonia in which it is believed there are 7 endangered languages such as: Adyge, Aromanian, Gagauz (South Balkans), Megleno-Romanian, Judezmo, Romani and Torlak. These languages are classified as endangered but are still spoken in the country. The article also reflects on the status of the Albanian language in North Macedonia by drawing comparisons with two other language varieties such as Arberesh which spoken in Southern Italy and Arvanitika spoken in Greece. The challenges that these minority languages have faced in particular countries should serve as a guide in designing effective language policies in North Macedonia in order for the language not be endangered. In the last section the article report on the phenomena of Globali...

2014

Most of the 6,000‐7,000 languages spoken across the world are under threat. In some cases, the few remaining speakers are elderly and the languages are not being transmitted to new generations. In other cases, the speakers are shifting to dominant languages. The result of these events is a crisis in linguistic diversity leading many scholars to predict that between 50%-90% of all the world‘s languages will be extinct by the end of this century. Although various approaches have been developed to examine the issues underlying this crisis, no one has yet proposed a unifying framework. To address this gap, this paper proposes an ecological framework through which the processes of language attrition, shift and extinction can be examined and evaluated. Ever since ecological approaches were introduced to sociolinguistics by Einar Haugen in 1971, they have found broad application in the field. Various interpretations have been developed: for example, in terms of correlations between the nic...

Jadavpur Journal of Languages and Linguistics ISSN: 2581-494X, 2020

Under the wave of the increasing reach of the English language in the era of globalisation, the linguistic diversity of human society is in crisis and many languages are facing disappearance. This feature and the disappearance of ecological diversity are both imminent issues. This article attempts to analyse the crisis of linguistic diversity using the perspective of ecological linguistics and explore the relationship between linguistic diversity and ecological diversity. With the disappearance of the native language, the knowledge embedded in the language of some indigenous groups also disappeared, which is closely related to the ecological destruction of the area where they are located, and the cultural aggression encountered by the native society. This article initiates a discussion on the ecological and linguistic diversity, how human society should preserve both in order to get benefited, furthermore, it analyses the present sit

2012

When we first started the project of looking at minority languages through a linguistic landscape lens, we felt that the visibility of minority languages in public space had been insufficiently dealt with in traditional minority language research. A linguistic landscape approach, as it had developed over the last years, would constitute a valuable path to explore, by looking at the ‘same old issues’ of language contact and language conflict from a specific angle. We were convinced that fresh linguistic landscape data would be able to provide innovative and useful insights into ‘patterns of language […] use, official language policies, prevalent language attitudes, [and] power relations between different linguistic groups’ (Backhaus 2007, p. 11). The linguistic landscape approach, as presented by the different authors in this volume, has clearly proven to be a heuristic appropriate and relevant for a wide range of minority language situations. More specifically, the ideas and analyses in the different chapters do contribute to a further understanding of minority languages and their speakers. They deepen our comprehension of language policies, power relations and ideologies in minority language settings.