[Endangered-languages-l] Prehistory of language revitalization?

Tue Nov 18 14:46:17 UTC 2014

While the example of Alfred is definitely interesting, I think it actually represents something rather different from language revitalization (for all that it is surely a language policy thing). I think Alfred's policies actually reflect the fact that English was alive and well amongst his population (indeed, surely the majority language), but Latin -- which was required for access to knowledge (perhaps much as English is required today) -- was known only a relative few. It might be reasonable to observe that English did not have an extensive literary tradition in Alfred's day, but I'm not sure it was in need of revitalization as such. Indeed, it was surely spreading (principally at the expense of Old Welsh, etc.) at the time.

On the other hand, a move to bolster the status of English as a written language of learning was a relatively remarkable act of local language policy at the time, though the nearby example of Irish (with a fairly robust literary tradition by Alfred's time) may perhaps have been an inspiration.

Cheers,
Carl

--
Carl Edlund Anderson
http://unisabana.academia.edu/CarlAnderson
http://laclil.unisabana.edu.co/
http://www.clilsymposium.co/
Department of Languages & Cultures
Universidad de La Sabana
Chía, Colombia

-----Original Message-----
From: Endangered-languages-l [mailto:endangered-languages-l-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org] On Behalf Of Dave Sayers
Sent: Tuesday, 18 November, 2014 6:35
To: endangered-languages-l at listserv.linguistlist.org
Subject: Re: [Endangered-languages-l] Prehistory of language revitalization?

Hi Jussi,

I started a discussion this summer over on the lgpolicy list
(https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/lgpolicy-list) about the prehistory of language policy more broadly. I got a lot of interesting responses. The only one that might relate to language revitalisation in some sense was King Alfred of Wessex’s literacy programme of 878-92 AD, setting up schools, and translating from Latin to Old English a series of books he deemed “most necessary for all men to know”, as he put it in the preface letter. (In C9, English was a vernacular language, widely used for administration but not highly regarded.) This could be interpreted as an attempt to bolster the status of English, to revitalise it in that sense. King Alfred's literacy and translation policy was described in a recent BBC documentary:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snU5LvSbSKU

It's discussed from 43m 35s, to the end of the programme.

I would say that the 'modern' tradition of language revitalisation has a longer history than just the 19th century though. From my own research I know that the reconstruction of the Cornish language began in the early 18th or even late 17th century, by amateur philologists concerned about the disappearance of the language. I discuss this in a co-authored article coming out next year (which I'll send you if you like). And I don't think this is a particularly unusual case.

You may like to re-ask your question on the lgpolicy list too!

Dave

--
Dr. Dave Sayers
Senior Lecturer, Dept Humanities, Sheffield Hallam University, UK Honorary Research Fellow, Arts & Humanities, Swansea University, UK dave.sayers at cantab.net | http://swansea.academia.edu/DaveSayers

On 18/11/2014 11:11, Ylikoski Jussi wrote:
> Dear colleagues,
>
>
> According to the received view, the history of modern language
> revitalization seems to begin from the Hebrew and Gaelic revivals in
> the 19th century. The motives and impact factors of people such as
> Pāṇini, Gutenberg and Herder aside, and disregarding the rise of
> European nation states and their national languages, I would be
> interested to know whether there have been less known – and presumably
> less successful – early ("pre-Hebraic" and "pre-Gaelic") collective
> efforts that could be characterized as language revitalization in a sense of consciously and systematically trying to halt or reverse the decline of a language or to revive an extinct one.
> Anywhere in the world?
>
>
> Needless to say, I would be grateful for any references to published work on this issue.
>
>
> Best regards,
>
>
> Jussi
>
>
>
> http://ansatte.uit.no/jussi.ylikoski/
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Endangered-languages-l mailing list
> Endangered-languages-l at listserv.linguistlist.org
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/endangered-languages
> -l
>
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