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<TITLE>RE: 'Status' drives extinction of languages</TITLE>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>Doesn't status really mean the language spoken by the group that controls the most resources?<BR>
<BR>
Felecia<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
-----Original Message-----<BR>
From: owner-lgpolicy-list@ccat.sas.upenn.edu on behalf of Stan & Sandy Anonby<BR>
Sent: Thu 2/14/2008 11:54 AM<BR>
To: lgpolicy-list@ccat.sas.upenn.edu<BR>
Subject: Re: 'Status' drives extinction of languages<BR>
<BR>
Interesting. Sounds like it's broadly researched. I've got a couple of<BR>
comments.<BR>
<BR>
1) I wonder how widely the status argument can be applied. For instance, the<BR>
article says the researchers point out that bilingual societies do exist:<BR>
"But the histories of countries where two languages co-exist today generally<BR>
involve split populations that lived without significant interaction,<BR>
effectively in separate, monolingual societies. Only recently have these<BR>
communities begun to mix, allowing language competition to begin."<BR>
<BR>
Maybe the populations lived without significant interaction because the<BR>
status difference was so great. Maybe mixing happened recently only because<BR>
the lower status language began to gain prestige.<BR>
<BR>
2) I believe that the increased status of French in Quebec may have helped<BR>
in creating a larger percentage of speakers there. However, I think larger<BR>
factors included the flight of English speakers and large immigration from<BR>
Francophone countries.<BR>
<BR>
Stan Anonby<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
----- Original Message -----<BR>
From: "Harold Schiffman" <hfsclpp@gmail.com><BR>
To: "lp" <lgpolicy-list@ccat.sas.upenn.edu><BR>
Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2008 11:27 AM<BR>
Subject: 'Status' drives extinction of languages<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
> 'Status' drives extinction of languages<BR>
> Bob Beale<BR>
> ABC Science Online<BR>
><BR>
> Thursday, 21 August 2003<BR>
><BR>
><BR>
><BR>
><BR>
><BR>
> A language's status in society is the best way to predict if it is<BR>
> headed for extinction Languages evolve and compete with each other<BR>
> much like plants and animals, but those driven to extinction are<BR>
> almost always tongues with a low social status, U.S. research shows.<BR>
> The social status of a language is the most accurate way of predicting<BR>
> whether it will survive, argue researchers in a paper appearing today<BR>
> in the journal, Nature . They also suggest that active intervention to<BR>
> boost the status of rare and endangered languages can save them.<BR>
> "Thousands of the world's languages are vanishing at an alarming rate,<BR>
> with 90% of them being expected to disappear with the current<BR>
> generation," warned Dr Daniel Abrams and Professor Steven Strogatz,<BR>
> both of Cornell University in New York.<BR>
><BR>
> The pair have developed a simple mathematical model of language<BR>
> competition to explain how dialects such as Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and<BR>
> Quechua - the most common surviving indigenous language in the<BR>
> Americas - have lost out to more dominant tongues.<BR>
> The model is based on data they collected on the number of speakers of<BR>
> endangered languages - in 42 regions of Peru, Scotland, Wales,<BR>
> Bolivia, Ireland and Alsaçe-Lorraine - over time. All have been in<BR>
> steep decline over the past century or so, and the model suggests that<BR>
> Scottish Gaelic and Quechua will be close to extinct by about 2030.<BR>
><BR>
> Previous models of language dynamics have focused on the transmission<BR>
> and evolution of syntax, grammar or other structural properties of a<BR>
> language itself. Yet by comparing various influences that help to<BR>
> explain the steadily declining numbers of speakers of each language,<BR>
> Abrams and Strogatz singled out status as the single most significant<BR>
> factor that could predict its extinction threat.<BR>
><BR>
> "Quechua, for example, still has many speakers in Huanuco, Peru," they<BR>
> note. "But its low status is driving a rapid shift to Spanish, which<BR>
> leads to an unfortunate situation in which a child cannot communicate<BR>
> with his or her grandparents." A language's fate generally depends on<BR>
> both its number of speakers and its perceived status, the latter<BR>
> usually reflecting the social or economic opportunities afforded to<BR>
> its speakers, they said. When two languages are in competition, the<BR>
> one that offers the greatest opportunities to its speakers will<BR>
> usually prevail.<BR>
><BR>
> The researchers point out that bilingual societies do exist: "But the<BR>
> histories of countries where two languages co-exist today generally<BR>
> involve split populations that lived without significant interaction,<BR>
> effectively in separate, monolingual societies. Only recently have<BR>
> these communities begun to mix, allowing language competition to<BR>
> begin." They urged active intervention to slow the global rate of<BR>
> language decline, pointing out that their model also predicts that<BR>
> higher status will keep a language alive. They also cite a real-life<BR>
> instance where this has happened: "The example of Québec French<BR>
> demonstrates that language decline can be slowed by strategies such as<BR>
> policy-making, education and advertising, in essence increasing an<BR>
> endangered language's status."<BR>
> Similar measures may make a difference elsewhere, they argued.<BR>
><BR>
> <A HREF="http://www.clipclip.org/Bevsiem/clips/detail/66166">http://www.clipclip.org/Bevsiem/clips/detail/66166</A><BR>
><BR>
> --<BR>
> **************************************<BR>
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><BR>
<BR>
<BR>
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