16.3542, Review: African Lang/Lang Death: Batibo (2005)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-16-3542. Wed Dec 14 2005. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 16.3542, Review: African Lang/Lang Death: Batibo (2005)

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1)
Date: 09-Dec-2005
From: Michael Cahill < Mike_Cahill at sil.org >
Subject: Language Decline and Death in Africa 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Wed, 14 Dec 2005 03:31:22
From: Michael Cahill < Mike_Cahill at sil.org >
Subject: Language Decline and Death in Africa 
 

AUTHOR: Batibo, Herman M.
TITLE: Language Decline and Death in Africa
SUBTITLE: Causes, Consequences, and Challenges
SERIES: Multilingual Matters 132
PUBLISHER: Multilingual Matters
YEAR: 2005
Announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/16/16-1572.html 

Mike Cahill, SIL International

DESCRIPTION OF CONTENTS

The first four chapters of this slim volume (129 pages of text, plus 
several indexes and appendices) are a good introduction to the 
language situation in Africa as a whole, while the last four chapters 
explicitly address issues of language endangerment.

Chapter 1 is a useful summary of the language families of Africa - 
where they are spoken, and a few sample languages. Batibo (B) also 
introduces what I find a useful term - ''plurilingualism'' - to label a 
situation where a country or continent has many languages, 
reserving ''multilingual'' to describe an individual speaking several 
languages. He also sketches the situation with regard to language 
contacts between African languages, both ancient and modern, and 
the situations that arise from these.

Chapter 2 introduces patterns of language use and prestige. B 
presents an admittedly idealized ''triglossic'' structure of language use, 
with a colonial language often having higher prestige than a dominant 
indigenous language. However, the dominant indigenous language 
has more prestige than a minority language. Here he also mentions 
that national leaders associate ex-colonial languages with socio-
economic development, and this trumps resolutions for promotions of 
indigenous languages passed by OAU and similar bodies (including 
linguists...). He describes characteristics of dominant languages which 
make them dominant, and also the dynamism of languages in contact 
that leads to phenomena of code-mixing, code-switching, and 
borrowing. His summary statement is a guiding principle for those 
involved in trying to sustain endangered languages: ''As long as 
speakers see some social status or socio-economic value in their 
languages, they will certainly wish to maintain them.''

Chapter 3 talks of characteristics of African languages, viewing them 
as a resource. First he discusses the functions that languages play, 
focusing on Africa, but the same points could be made elsewhere in 
the world. Language serves as a vehicle for cultural transmission, as a 
means of self-identity, societal cohesion, social stratification, of 
socialization and even establishing social relations (a young lady in 
Lomé addressed by a young man in the Mina language may answer in 
French as a sign that she does not desire any relationship with him). B 
then goes on to summarize the unique linguistic characteristics of 
African languages, from clicks to labialvelars to ATR vowel harmony, 
noun class systems, serial verb constructions, etc. The cultural wealth 
of African languages is illustrated, with figurative speech, 
proverbs, ''joking relations,'' etc.  The indigenous languages could be 
used for national development, but generally are not.

Chapter 4 delves into the status of minority languages in more detail, 
defining them not only in terms of low number of speakers, but also 
functionally as not being used in official or public domains. Colonial 
languages may be actually spoken by relatively few people, but they 
function in public domains more commonly. Local languages may be 
areally dominant, and these are not considered minority languages 
either. In most African nations, most of the languages are minority 
languages. Speakers of these are often caught in a dilemma, wishing 
to retain their own linguistic and cultural heritage, but also wanting 
access to education and better-paying jobs. Even though studies have 
shown the advantages of mother-tongue education, most minority 
languages have no resources for such. Governments, in their 
understandable desire for national unity and to eradicate tribalism, 
often devalue or actively discourage minority languages in their 
language policies.

In Chapter 5, B starts in on specifics of endangered African 
languages, first defining endangered as ''threatened by extinction,'' 
and noting that endangerment is a sliding scale, with ''highly 
endangered'' on one end and ''safe'' on the other. He discusses 
factors leading to language endangerment when two unequal 
languages are in contact. These include the resistance of the weaker 
language to the stronger one, the amount of pressure exerted by the 
stronger language, and finally, the perceived advantages of joining 
the stronger community. He acknowledges that any attempt to quantify 
endangerment runs into the problem of inadequate data, and so many 
of the conclusions must remain ''highly speculative.'' For information 
on specific languages, B cites a number of resources which the 
serious investigator might consult, including the Ethnologue (Grimes 
2000), and various papers from Brenzinger's (1998) volume. The 
remainder of the chapter is a country-by-country summary, listing 
population, major languages, and what B considers highly 
endangered languages. His judgment of the latter is based on 
population figures, degree of bilingualism in the dominant language, 
socio-political pressures, negative attitudes and non-transmission of 
the language to children, and especially where only older people 
spoke the language. It is admittedly based on partial information in 
many cases, but he estimates that 14% of African languages are 
presently highly endangered.

In Chapter 6, B defines more carefully the processes of language shift 
and language death. He mentions the Gaelic-Arvanitika model of 
Sasse, based on causal factors leading to cessation of transmission of 
the language, but spends more time on his own model, a process-
based one. This model assumes that for language shift and eventually 
death to take place, there must be bilingualism, a differential prestige 
in the 2 languages, and that attraction to the new language outweighs 
resistance to change. It has five phases: 1) relative monolingualism, 2) 
bilingualism with L1 predominance, 3) bilingualism with L2 
predominance, 4) restricted use of L1, and 5) L1 as a substratum, at 
which stage L1 is dead. He mentions sudden language death due to 
disease, genocide, or deliberate decision to switch languages, but 
most language death is gradual, involving the factors discussed in the 
models. He stresses that attitudes toward language are crucial.

Chapter 7 concentrates on language maintenance, particularly in 
cases of the lesser of two unequal languages. It is common in Africa 
for two (or more) languages to exist in a more or less state of equal 
prestige. In this case, L1 and L2 speakers learn each others' 
language, which B calls ''unmarked bilingualism.'' If L1 is more 
dominant than L2, L2 is maintained only when people are able to 
resist pressures, and the most important factor is their attitude toward 
their own language. B gives a summary of a previous study of his 
application of Auberger's ''proficiency resistance model.'' Lists of 
factors by Blench and UNESCO are also given. Among these factors 
is a written form of the language, something that is missing in many 
African languages. B also discusses language revitalization, but gives 
non-African examples such as Maori, since there has been virtually no 
documentation of any African language being revitalized. He is not 
optimistic about most African minority languages, since ''gains in the 
prestige of minority languages are not a common phenomenon.''

Chapter 8 speaks of language empowerment. We have the label 
of ''minority'' languages, though the sum total of ''minority'' language 
speakers in a country is often a majority of the population. But they 
are often disenfranchised from national life and discourse - the 
powerless. Language empowerment measures are discussed here, 
including specific language policies by governments, planning and 
what is often more difficult, implementation of those plans. B singles 
out Tanzania, Kenya, Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa as having 
explicit language policies, but these are not the norm in the continent. 
There are ideological and technical issues to be dealt with, and B 
gives a number of recommendations for government actions. He lists a 
number of African initiatives of recent decades, most of which have 
vanished, as well as listing a number of organizations that are 
becoming quite interested in endangered languages recently.

B ends with three useful Appendices. The first lists the nationally and 
areally dominant languages, country by country. The second, more 
debatably, lists highly endangered, extinct, or nearly extinct languages 
for each country. The third lists the number of dominant and minority 
languages of Africa, also by country, concluding that of 2477 African 
languages, 308 are highly endangered. A Language Index as well as 
a Subject/Author Index are included.

EVALUATION

This is an excellent introduction to the topic of endangered languages 
in Africa. But beyond that, by referencing and summarizing much of 
the theoretical literature on endangered languages, it actually serves 
as a readable primer to the factors that make languages endangered 
around the world and what can be done about them. Those who 
would like more detailed and specific African case studies may want to 
take a look at other works such as Brenzinger (1998).

B is occasionally uncritical of sources, as when he labels the 
predictions of Michael Krauss that 90% of the world's languages will 
disappear by 2100 as ''statistics'' rather than speculation. He cites 
Sapir and Whorf uncritically, whereas their views are a continual 
source of debate.  He also calls labialvelars as ''unique'' to Africa, 
whereas they also occur in Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, and (rarely) 
in South America as well. His book is understandably weighted by his 
experience in Tanzania and Botswana, and would benefit especially 
from more West African input. However, these are minor quibbles 
compared to the overall value of the book.

Also, I believe there is reason to be somewhat more hopeful than 
Batibo is about the survival of many African languages. With 
orthographies being developed by groups such as NACALCO and 
CABTAL in Cameroon, BTL in Kenya, SIL and Lutheran Bible 
Translators in various countries, as well as by other groups, several 
hundred languages are in the process of receiving orthographic 
representations, literacy materials, and Bibles in their own language, 
and a number of these are also getting dictionaries and grammars. 
Besides the direct value of having literacy and other materials 
available, the presence of these tends to raise the prestige of the 
language in the speakers' minds, and their attitudes towards their own 
languages become crucially more positive (as B himself notes in the 
case of the Naro language). Still, it remains to be seen how much 
these positive factors will be able to counteract the negative ones 
against the survival of the minority languages of Africa.

REFERENCES

Grimes, Barbara (ed.). 2000. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 
14th edition. Dallas: SIL International.

Brenzinger, M. (ed.) 1998. Endangered Languages in Africa. Köln: 
Rüdiger Köppe Verlag. 

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Mike Cahill did on-site linguistic investigation in the Konni language of 
northern Ghana for several years, including application to literacy and 
translation work. He received his Ph.D. from Ohio State University in 
1999, and his primary research interests are in African phonology. He 
was a member of the LSA Committee on Endangered Languages and 
their Preservation from 2001-2003, chairing it the last year. He 
currently serves as SIL's International Linguistics Coordinator.





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