Can Threatened Languages be Saved?

Edited by Prof. Joshua A. Fishman

Publication date:

05 January 2001

Publisher

Multilingual Matters

Dimensions:

210x148mm
6x8"

ISBN-13: 9781853594939

BOOK DESCRIPTION
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Defenders of threatened languages all over the world, from advocates of biodiversity to dedicated defenders of their own cultural authenticity, are often humbled by the immensity of the task that they are faced with when the weak and the few seek to find a safe-harbour against the ravages of the strong and the many. This book provides both practical case studies and theoretical directions from all five continents and advances thereby the collective pursuit of "reversing language shift" for the greater benefit of cultural democracy everywhere.

PREFACE: Reversing Language Shift
1. Why is it so Hard to Save a Threatened Language? - Joshua A. Fishman
THE AMERICAS:
2. Reversing Navajo Language Shift, Revisited - Tiffany Lee (Stanford Univ) and Daniel McLaughlin (Dine College)
3. How Threatened is the Spanish of New York Puerto Ricans? - Ofelia Garcia (Long Island Univ), Jose Luis Morin (City Univ of New York) and Klaudia Rivera (Long Island Univ)
4. A Decade in the Life of a Two-in-One Language - Yiddish in New York City - Joshua A. Fishman
5. Reversing Language Shift in Quebec - Richard Y. Bourhis (Universite du Quebec a Montreal)
6. Otomi Language Shift and Some Recent Efforts to Reverse it - Yolanda Lastra (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico)
7. Reversing Quechua Language Shift in South America - Nancy H. Hornberger (Univ of Pennsylvania) and Kendall A. King (New York Univ)
EUROPE:
8. Irish Language Production and Reproduction 1981-1996 - Pádraig Ó Riagáin (Institiuid Teangeolaiochta Eireann)
9. A Frisian Update of Reversing Language Shift - Durk Gorter (Fryske Academy)
10. Reversing Language Shift: The Case of Basque - Maria-Jose Azurmendi (Univ of the Basque Country), Erramun Bachoc (Basque Cultural Institute) and Francisca Zabeleta (Public University of Navarre)
11. Catalan A Decade Later - Miquel Strubell (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)
AFRICA AND ASIA:
12. Saving Threatened Languages in Africa: A Case Study of Oko - Efurosibina Adegbija (Univ of Ilorin, Nigeria)
13. Andamanese: Biological Challenge for Language Reversal - E. Annamalai & V. Gnanasundaram (C.I.I.L, Mysore)
14. "Akor Itak" Our Language, Your Language - Ainu in Japan - John C. Maher (International Christian Univ, Tokyo)
15. Hebrew After a Century of RLS Efforts - Bernard Spolsky (Bar-Illan Univy) and Elana Shohamy (Tel Aviv Univ).
THE PACIFIC:
16. Can the Shift from Immigrant Languages be Reversed in Australia? - Michael Clyne (Monash Univ)
17. Is the Extinction of Australia's Indigenous Languages Inevitable? - Joseph Lo Bianco and Mari Rhydwen (National Language and Literacy Institute of Australia)
18. RLS in Aotearoa/New Zealand 1989-1999 - Richard & Nena Benton (Waikato University)
CONCLUSIONS:
19. From Theory to Practice (and Vice Versa): Review, Reconsideration and Reiteration - Joshua A. Fishman