Encyclopedia of the world's endangered languages

This volume brings together the plenary lectures of the International Congress of Linguists (Prague, July 2003). The accompanying CD Rom contains the rest of the proceedings of the conference. The fields covered by the plenary talks are those that are currently particularly dynamic in the opinion of the members of the Permanent International Comittee of Linguists (CIPL). The 15 papers deal both with fields that are empirically as well as methodologically relatively contained, i.e. typology, morphology, phonology, pragmatics, lexicography, computational linguistics, historical linguistics, and creolistics, as well as broader ones such as the sociology of language and approaches to fieldwork and endangered languages. I shall begin by

Moderna Språk

In this book, Asya Pereltsvaig, lecturer at Stanford University, sets out to give us an overview of the languages of the world and their structural diversity. Basing her description on concrete examples, she gives a typological view of the various language families, mostly, but not always, from a geographic starting point. The text is presented in a pedagogical and student oriented way that suggests great experience, both as a writer and a teacher. After an introduction where she discusses basic concepts like languages, dialects and accents, language families and language diversity the author starts off with a rather short chapter on the Indo-European languages, followed by eight chapters on the linguistic situation in different parts of the world, which give a very good overview of the present-day situation. At the end of each of these chapters she focuses on a specific linguistic question that is relevant to that particular group of languages or to the geo-cultural situation, e.g. 'Lesser known Indo-European Languages', 'Universals and parametric theory of the languages', 'Field linguistics' and 'Language contact'. This is a very good way of keeping the reader's interest. She also successfully avoids a tedious repetitive catalogue description of the geo-linguistic situation of the world by focusing on general typology and on a few representative or enigmatic cases. This way the book should capture the students' (i.e. readers') interest in continuing their reading, thus deepening their knowledge and motivation. The reader is provided with intriguing and motivating questions throughout the book, which show the author's deep knowledge and capacity to synthesize the complex matter into comprehensible résumés. The author has also included some small grey boxes where she discusses specific topics such as 'Knights, riders and false friends', 'Pioneers of the Pacific' and 'Language diversity and density'. The book ends with two chapters on 'macro families' (the idea of nostratic languages and similar "macroviews") and 'pidgins, creoles and other mixed languages'. The book is a truly exhaustive presentation of the languages of the world, focusing on the contemporary situation and the relationships between these languages, not only in terms of forming different "families" but also from a typological standpoint, which makes the reading more interesting and also offers a better scholarly perspective. This way the author is able to introduce the reader into such fields of vital linguistic interest as language contact, field linguistics, universals and the officiality of languages without a long repetitive presentation of all the world's languages but rather focusing on what is representative and characteristic, and this in itself makes the book more valuable as a textbook and as a stimulus. It is obvious that the value and utility of the book increases considerably because of this approach. There is no mistaking the fascination and interest on the part of the author in attempting to systematize and pedagogize such an enormous scholarly field as that

Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 1995

lems, which arise more from availability than from lack of oversight, Genre and the New Rhetoric is a significant contribution to our understanding of a multiplicity of issues related to genre, such as rhetoric, philosophy of language, speech act theory, literacy, and language education. Endangered Languages. Robert H. Robins and Eugenius M. Uhlenbeck, eds. Berg Oxford, 1991.273 pp.

2005

Sociolinguistic Studies, 2008

A expressão de propriedades no Guató e no Wa'ikhana [Expression of properties in Guató and in Wa'ikhana]. Supervisor: Kristine Stenzel Funded by the Brazilian Ministry of Education's Program for Continuing Academic Development (CAPES/MEC).

2013

1. OVERVIEW. This volume establishes a new perspective by bringing together scholars with a range of approaches to endangered languages, thus living up to its name: the very act of bringing these authors together provides a new perspective on the connections between documentation, sociolinguistics, and language revitalization. Specifically, it illustrates how language documentation can and should be informed by sociolinguistic considerations if it is to help promote language revitalization. The question, then, is what should documentation consist of? While the authors propose different answers to this question, there is a certain amount of consistency among them, and a picture emerges from this volume of the factors that are considered most relevant. summarizes the factors mentioned in each chapter. ('Mentioning' may consist of actual reporting on that factor for the community in question, or of recommendations that such factors should be considered.)

2009

It is generally agreed that about 7,000 languages are spoken across the world today and at least half may no longer be spoken by the end of this century. This state-of-the-art Handbook examines the reasons behind this dramatic loss of linguistic diversity, why it matters, and what can be done to document and support endangered languages. The volume is relevant not only to researchers in language endangerment, language shift and language death, but to anyone interested in the languages and cultures of the world. It is accessible to both specialists and non-specialists: researchers will find cutting-edge contributions from acknowledged experts in their fields, while students, activists and other interested readers will find a wealth of readable, yet thorough and up-to-date, information. The Handbook covers the essentials of language documentation and archiving, and also includes hands-on chapters on advocacy and support for endangered languages, development of writing systems for previously unwritten languages, education, training the next generation of researchers and activists, dictionary making, the ecology of languages, language and culture, language and society, language policy, and harnessing technology and new media in support of endangered languages.

International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 2010

Among a couple of dozen books in English written on language endangerment over the past two decades, this one is uniquely good. It is especially so for linguists, and perhaps particularly for those who are wondering if they would like to become linguists. All these books take note of the parlous state of the world's stock of languages and the fact that half of them now have fewer than 7,000 speakers each. That perhaps 4 per cent of them are disappearing every decade means that there is no room for complacency about the future. But the usual way is then to plead in general terms for the value that stands to be lost, the inner worlds known to small communities, the evidence of linguistic diversity that might illuminate scientific understanding of the potential of the human mind, and of the origins of the human race: noble stuff, but distant, and a bit vague. This book stands out because it is written by a linguist who has been active in tiny language communities over long periods. He can tell first-person stories about the role of their languages in the lives of his native-speaker friends and colleagues, in Australasia and the Pacific. He can go beyond the usual stock of 'good examples' hallowed in the literature, privileging the reader by giving access to his own experience. But as well as being experienced, he is learned. He says as much about metropolitan languages throughout history, and little-known languages of antiquity, as he does about modern languages spoken by small minorities in inaccessible places. In this book, Mandarin and Meroitic, Korean and Kayardild are all on a par. Evans emphasizes the human dimension of, and indeed human fascination for, linguistic data. He notes in his Prologue: 'you only hear what you listen for, and you only listen for what you are wondering about.' His explicit goal is to show us what we should be wondering about-a fundamental way to inspire further research. He also shows quite concretely what the scientific importance of this kind of linguistic knowledge has been in the past, and will be in the future. In the