Language Revival and Renewal

Half of the 6,000 to 7,000 languages worldwide are considered “endangered,” as parental transmission loses out to other influences and power languages take over the task of global communications. Of these, more than 500 are considered “moribund” or nearly extinct, with only a few elderly speakers still living, according to the language resource Ethnologue. In the United States, 68 indigenous languages are in this category. The process by which languages become extinct is known as language loss, language obsolescence, language death, or extinction. On the other side of the language coin, efforts to instill vitality in a language that is either extinct or in the process of becoming so are referred to as language maintenance, language revival, language renewal, and more generally, as language revitalization. This entry discusses those efforts.

Languages and the sociocultural contexts in which they function have never been static, and language loss is not a new phenomenon. The nature, scale, and scope of the current pattern of linguistic change is unprecedented and distinct from what occurred before the colonial projects starting in the 16th century and the formation of large nation-states in the 18th and 19th centuries. Since then, languages have been lost at an unprecedented pace. This replacement of thousands of languages by a few languages represents a loss of cultural and intellectual diversity to the world. From an individual perspective, language loss represents a shift in identity; from a community perspective, it represents the loss of cultural values, beliefs, traditions, and knowledge that are closely tied to the languages in question. Many scholars, including Joshua A. Fishman, David Crystal, and Leanne Hinton, agree that cultures cannot long survive without the languages that are used to express their more nuanced feelings, emotions, and ideas.

Besides the loss of important linguistic resources to the world, maintaining a community language is nowadays considered a basic linguistic human right to be protected. Around the world, local and indigenous communities have become aware of this problem and are taking action to reverse the course of language loss. Patterns of language loss and extinction are nearly always tied to political, military, or economic takeover or decline. They may be either slow and steady or abrupt, happening within a single generation. In the 20th century, developments in communication and universal education contributed to the decrease in the domains in which local and indigenous language may be used. Today, the phenomenon of globalization is also contributing to the decline in use of local and indigenous languages. Languages of wider communication, such as English, Spanish, and Chinese, are [Page 462]considered instrumental in conducting business and communicating on a global scale. According to the Endangered Language Fund, if the current patterns of language shift and language loss continue, half of the current languages in the world will be extinct by the year 2100.

Language revival and renewal are two of the terms applied in the literature to efforts by communities and advocates to maintain local and indigenous languages in use and halt the process of language loss and extinction. These terms, together with the more general language revitalization, are not always defined consistently; although some authors make clear distinctions among them, others choose to use them interchangeably. Language revival, in its most strict definition, applies to efforts to revive a language that is no longer in use by any native speakers. In a broader sense, this refers to the process by which members of a speech community try to revive fluency, strengthen existing competence, and expand the language's uses by adding new domains of use. Language renewal is referred to as efforts by adult community members to ensure that at least some of them will continue to use and promote a traditional language that has experienced decline in use. An example of this is the Master-Apprentice Language Program in California, in which elderly speakers of native languages act as mentors to adult members of the community, teaching them the language so they in turn help the community in revitalizing the language.

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