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<span id="IDstID"><big>Dear all,<br>
following Steven's suggestion, I am copying below the reply I
sent him last night.<br>
greetings, <br>
Alex</big> <span style="color: gray; font-size: 9pt;
font-family: monospace;"><br>
</span></span><span id="IDstID"><span style="color: gray;
font-size: 9pt; font-family: monospace;"><br>
</span>
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<td>Subject:</td>
<td>Re: small vital languages<br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Sent:</td>
<td>Thu, 23 Dec 2010 23:08:45 +1100<br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>From:</td>
<td>Alex Francois <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:alexandre.francois@anu.edu.au"><alexandre.francois@anu.edu.au></a><br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>To:</td>
<td>Steven Bird <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:sb@csse.unimelb.edu.au"><sb@csse.unimelb.edu.au></a><br>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</span><br>
<span id="IDstID"><font size="+1"><font face="Book Antiqua">hi
Steven,<br>
<br>
Thanks for an interesting query. <br>
Your description would fit most of the languages I work on, in
island Melanesia: northern Vanuatu, southeast Solomons.<br>
<br>
The northern Vanuatu situation is illustrated on <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://alex.francois.free.fr/AlexFrancois_Torba-languages_map.htm">this
map</a>.</font></font></span><span id="IDstID"><font
size="+1"><font face="Book Antiqua"> The overall population of
</font></font></span><span id="IDstID"><font size="+1"><font
face="Book Antiqua"> the Torres & Banks island groups </font></font></span><span
id="IDstID"><font size="+1"><font face="Book Antiqua">is 9359
people<small> [2009 census]</small>.</font></font></span><br>
<br>
<span id="IDstID"><font size="+1"><font face="Book Antiqua">T</font></font></span><span
id="IDstID"><font size="+1"><font face="Book Antiqua">he 17
languages spoken in </font></font></span><span id="IDstID"></span><span
id="IDstID"><font size="+1"><font face="Book Antiqua">the region </font></font></span><span
id="IDstID"><font size="+1"><font face="Book Antiqua">have numbers
of speakers ranging from 1 to 2100. Four of these are clearly
moribund, being spoken by only a few elders above the age of
50: Mwesen by 10 speakers, Olrat by 3, Lemerig by 2, Volow by
1.<br>
But the thirteen remaining languages</font></font></span><span
id="IDstID"></span><span id="IDstID"><font size="+1"><font
face="Book Antiqua"> have at least 200 speakers. T</font></font></span><span
id="IDstID"><font size="+1"><font face="Book Antiqua">he average
number of speakers per language in the region is <b>550</b>
(or 720 if one removes the four moribund languages from the
count). Many are spoken by a single village or two; the
maximum is six villages for one language, and the average is
three.<br>
<br>
</font></font></span><span id="IDstID"><font size="+1"><font
face="Book Antiqua">These 13 languages</font></font></span><span
id="IDstID"><font size="+1"><font face="Book Antiqua"> are </font></font></span><span
id="IDstID"><font size="+1"><font face="Book Antiqua">still
healthy,</font></font></span><span id="IDstID"><font size="+1"><font
face="Book Antiqua"> because</font></font></span><span
id="IDstID"><font size="+1"><font face="Book Antiqua">
inter-generational transmission is still maintained. They are
still the first language acquired by those children who grow
up in their home village.<br>
</font></font></span><br>
<font size="+1"><font face="Book Antiqua">More generally, I believe
the situation</font></font><span id="IDstID"><font size="+1"><font
face="Book Antiqua"> would be roughly similar for other
languages of the Vanuatu & Solomon islands. References on
this include 2 papers by Terry Crowley:</font></font></span><br>
<span id="IDstID"><font size="+1"><font face="Book Antiqua"> </font></font></span>
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li><font color="#003333"><big><span lang="EN-AU">Crowley,
Terry. 1995. Melanesian
languages: Do they have a future? <i>Oceanic
Linguistics</i> 34(2). 327-344.</span></big></font></li>
<li><font color="#003333"><big><span lang="EN-AU">Crowley,
Terry. 2000. The language
situation in Vanuatu. <i>Current Issues in Language
Planning</i> 1(1). </span><span style="">47-132.</span></big></font></li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote> </blockquote>
<span id="IDstID"><font size="+1"><font face="Book Antiqua"> </font></font></span></blockquote>
<span id="IDstID"></span><span id="IDstID"><font size="+1"><font
face="Book Antiqua"><br>
</font></font></span><span id="IDstID"><font size="+1"><font
face="Book Antiqua">I am about to publish about the situation
of northern Vanuatu in </font></font></span><span id="IDstID"><font
size="+1"><font face="Book Antiqua">a forthcoming issue of IJSL</font></font></span><span
id="IDstID"><font size="+1"><font face="Book Antiqua">, in a paper
</font></font></span><span id="IDstID"></span><span id="IDstID"><font
size="+1"><font face="Book Antiqua">currently
under revision</font></font></span><span id="IDstID"><font
size="+1"><font face="Book Antiqua">, entitled “<font
color="#330000"><i>The dynamics of linguistic diversity:
Egalitarian multilingualism and power imbalance among
north Vanuatu languages.</i></font>”</font></font></span><span
id="IDstID"><font size="+1"><font face="Book Antiqua"> Despite
the generally optimistic prospect in the short term, that </font></font></span><span
id="IDstID"><font size="+1"><font face="Book Antiqua">paper also
includes a discussion of historical processes of language
attrition during the last few generations: the number of </font></font></span><span
id="IDstID"><font size="+1"><font face="Book Antiqua">historically
documented </font></font></span><span id="IDstID"><font
size="+1"><font face="Book Antiqua">communalects was 31 in the
late 19th century, before it was reduced to 17 (>and now
13) nowadays. </font></font></span><span id="IDstID"><font
size="+1"><font face="Book Antiqua">So although these languages
are probably "safe" for a few more generations, it may be wise
to predict that <i>s</i></font></font></span><span
id="IDstID"><font size="+1"><font face="Book Antiqua"><i>ome</i>
of them might well go further down that slippery slope on the
long run. </font></font></span><br>
<blockquote><span id="IDstID"></span></blockquote>
<span id="IDstID"></span><span id="IDstID"><font size="+1"><font
face="Book Antiqua"><br>
best wishes,<br>
Alex</font></font>.<br>
<hr align="left" width="300"><span style="color: gray; font-size:
9pt; font-family: monospace;"><b>Dr Alex FRANÇOIS</b><br>
<br>
LACITO - CNRS, France<br>
<br>
2009-2012: Visiting Fellow<br>
Linguistics<br>
School of Culture, History and Language<br>
Australian National University<br>
ACT 0200, Australia<br>
<br>
Home address:<br>
31 Ainsworth St, Mawson, ACT 2607, Australia<br>
ph: [h] (+61)-2-6166 5569<br>
[w] (+61)-2-6125 1664<br>
[mob] (+61)-4-50 960 042<br>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://alex.francois.free.fr">http://alex.francois.free.fr</a><br>
</span>
<hr>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Subject:</td>
<td>small vital languages<br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Sent:</td>
<td>Thu, 23 Dec 2010 17:05:09 +1100<br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>From:</td>
<td>Steven Bird <a moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:sb@csse.unimelb.edu.au"><sb@csse.unimelb.edu.au></a><br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>To:</td>
<td>rnlist <a moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:r-n-l-d@unimelb.edu.au"><r-n-l-d@unimelb.edu.au></a><br>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</span>
<blockquote
cite="mid:AANLkTikbAy7dVMgezpHVu2BR6f9u9d4-h4GpNXxy3W6Q@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Can anyone suggest the names of languages having small speaker
populations that still have a good level of intergenerational transfer
and good survival prospects?
Thanks,
-Steven Bird</pre>
</blockquote>
<span id="IDstID"><span style="color: gray; font-size: 9pt;
font-family: monospace;"><br>
</span>
<hr>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Subject:</td>
<td>Re: small vital languages<br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Sent:</td>
<td>Fri, 24 Dec 2010 12:43:16 +1100<br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>From:</td>
<td>Steven Bird <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:sb@csse.unimelb.edu.au"><sb@csse.unimelb.edu.au></a><br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>To:</td>
<td>rnlist <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:r-n-l-d@unimelb.edu.au"><r-n-l-d@unimelb.edu.au></a><br>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</span>
<blockquote
cite="mid:AANLkTim-H6xmf3X8m=jXmOTuLmB60o4yodokWqDKjraF@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Thanks to everyone for your interesting contributions. Some were sent
only to me and I hope their senders will forward them to the whole
list. -Steven
</pre>
</blockquote>
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