Reversing Language Shift

By (author) Prof. Joshua A. Fishman

Publication date:

05 September 1991

Publisher

Multilingual Matters

Dimensions:

210x148mm
6x8"

ISBN-13: 9781853591228

BOOK DESCRIPTION
TABLE OF CONTENTS

This superbly organised presentation consists of four introductory theoretical chapters dealing with the why, what and how of RLS, six chapters devoted to 13 separate cases from various parts of the world and four concluding chapters that both restate the underlying theory as well as apply it more broadly, beyond the mother tongue transmission nexus, to second language for which intergenerational continuity is pursued precisely as second languages.

Author’s Preface
LANGUAGE SHIFT AND REVERSING LANGUAGE SHIFT: INTRODUCTORY CONSIDERATIONS
1. What This Book as About and Why lt is Needed
2. Why Try to Reverse Language Shift and Is It Really Possible To Do So?
3. ‘Where' and 'Why' Does Language Shift Occur and How Can It Be Reversed? Locating Language Shift in Social Space and in Societal Dynamics
4. How Threatened is 'Threatened'? A Typology of Disadvantaged Languages and Ameliorative Priorities
CASE STUDIES: A BAKER’S DOZEN FROM SEVERAL CONTINENTS
5. Irish: What More Can Be Done?
6. The Cases of Basque and Frisian
7. Four American Examples: Navajo, Spanish and Yiddish (Secular and Ultra·Orthodox)
8. Maori: The Native Language of New Zealand
9. Prospects for Reversing Language Shift in Australia: Evidence from its Aboriginal and Immigrant Languages
10. Three Success Stories (More or Less): Modern Hebrew, French in Quebec and Catalan in Spain
RELATED ISSUES AND RECAPITULATION
11. On RLS-Focused Language Planning and on Dialect-Standard Issues and Corpus Planning in Particular
12. The lntergenerational Transmission of 'Additional' Languages for Special Purposes
13. Limitations on School Effectiveness in Connection with Mother Tongue Transmission
14. Theoretical Recapitulation: What is Reversing Language Shift (RLS) and How Can It Succeed?