criteria for endangerment

[nancy lutz]

Dear All,
     I heartily second Nicholas Ostler's discussion! Having just
     finished a unit on Endangered Languages in my (Anthropology)
     Language and Culture course, I couldn't agree more. And I think this
     really points up how both linguists and anthropologists can and
     should work together on this issue. The social factors alone don't
     predict/explain language use, nor do the structural features of the
     languages at issue, or even knowledge of some of the bilingual/
     multilingual dynamics in an area. You really do have to look at both
     of these sides together. Too bad we can't have more actual collaborative
     projects between linguists and anthropologists tackling some of these
     issues -- it would certainly provide a depth that neither side alone
     can do. Maybe this would also be a good topic for a symposium panel
     somewhere? If there have been good examples that could serve as models,
     etc. Or maybe to encourage such research? I know that AAA (American
     Anthropological Association) would be open to such a panel, maybe other
     conference fora would be as well. Discussion and suggestions welcome!

     Best,
     Nancy

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     =========================================================================
     Date: Thu, 05 Dec 1996 17:23:28 +0500
     From: Mahendra Verma <mkv1 at york.ac.uk>
     Subject: Re: criteria for endangerment
     To: endangered-languages-l at carmen.murdoch.edu.au
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     Dear All

     Further to what Nicholas has said I would like to add that an
     understanding of
     language endangerment should not be dependent on  linguistic and
     micro-sociolinguistic analysis of the language that one was studying. It
     may
     be a very rewarding exercise for the linguistic to do. But it is very
     important to have a framework that would embrace the perceptions and
     beliefs
     of the members of this speech community about endangerment of their
     language.
     Too often linguists reject that or shy away from that because they think
     it
     was political. The whole issue has to be understood in a wider global
     perspective as far as loss of languages is concerned. Transplanted
     communities
     generally aspire to become bilingual by adding a new language in their
     new
     home. But in many cases such speech communities' language and heritage
     are
     endangered as a result of the monolingual language policies. Quite often
     they
     are linguistically and culturally disfranchised. The criteria for
     language
     endangerment will have to move away from 'pure' linguistic criteria.

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