"tip"
Aurolyn Luykx
aurolynluykx at yahoo.com
Tue Nov 29 23:46:26 UTC 2005
I agree with Hal -- while rough notions of the number
and/or percentage of speakers required to ensure lg.
vitality (to the degree that it is ever "ensured"!)
are useful for lay people, they cannot be thought of
even as general rules of thumb by linguists
researching such matters. A whole confluence of
different factors (# of speakers, % of bilinguals,
average age of speakers, geographical concentration,
ethno-political pluralism, dialectal fragmentation,
language ideologies ,etc. etc. etc.) must be
considered in gauging a language's vitality, and to
reduce it to a question of how many speakers, even for
"simplicity's sake", is highly misleading.
Aurolyn Luykx
p.s. There was indeed a panel on "tip" at the AAA last
year, though I think it must have been in San
Francisco, because I went to Atlanta and didn't see
it. If you can get hold of the conference program or
the book of abstracts, those would list who the
presenters were.
--- Multiple recipients of list
<lgpolicy-list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu> wrote:
>
> LGPOLICY-LIST Digest 50
>
> Topics covered in this issue include:
>
> 1) Re: Research about the threshold of a
> linguistic 'slippery slope'?
> by "Harold F. Schiffman"
> <haroldfs at ccat.sas.upenn.edu>
> 2) Revitalizing Igbo
> by "Harold F. Schiffman"
> <haroldfs at ccat.sas.upenn.edu>
> 3) House bill 2089 (Pennsylvania) to officialize
> English
> by "Harold F. Schiffman"
> <haroldfs at ccat.sas.upenn.edu>
> > Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2005 08:38:00 -0500 (EST)
> From: "Harold F. Schiffman"
> <haroldfs at ccat.sas.upenn.edu>
> To: Language Policy-List
> <lgpolicy-list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu>
> Subject: Re: Research about the threshold of a
> linguistic 'slippery slope'?
>
>
> Dear Nicholas,
>
> The threshold of the slippery slope you refer to is
> called linguistic
> "tip" in the literature; the phrase was coined by
> Nancy Dorian in her 1981
> book _Language Death: The Life Cycle of a Scottish
> Gaelic Dialect_: "In
> terms of possible routes toward language death it
> would seem that a
> language which has been demographically highly
> stable for several
> centuries may experience a sudden 'tip' after which
> the demographic tide
> flows strongly in favor of some other language." (p.
> 51)
>
> Sorry to say, I have not seen in the linguistic
> anthropological literature
> any research or speculation about what the tipping
> point might be for a
> given language in terms of an actual percentage of
> speakers. The articles
> I have seen focus more on what kinds of
> socioeconomic factors and
> linguistic ideologies have precipitated the tip.
> (For example, Elizabeth
> Mertz's article on Cape Breton Gaelic in the edited
> volume _Investigating
> Obsolescence_).
>
> I believe there was a panel revisiting the concept
> of linguistic tip at
> last year's truncated AAAs (American Anthropological
> Association Annual
> Meetings) in Atlanta (or was it in San Francisco!).
> Are any of that
> panel's participants on this list?
>
> There _is_ a slightly different kind of claim
> floating around that is
> based not on percentages, but on actual numbers of
> speakers. This claim,
> frequently repeated by linguists and the media, is
> that a language needs
> 100,000 speakers to survive. This claim originated
> as a series of cautious
> speculations on the part of the linguist Michael
> Krauss, and is not a
> scientific theory. I trace the origin and
> transformation of this claim,
> and its application to Scottish Gaelic by British
> journalists, in my
> article titled "'Gaelic Doomed as Speakers Die Out'?
> The Public Discouse
> of Gaelic Language Death in Scotland." It is
> forthcoming next year in
> _Leasachadh na Gaidhlig: Revitalising Gaelic in
> Contemporary Scotland_,
> Wilson McLeod, ed., Dunedin Academic Press
> (Edinburgh). I'd be happy to
> send you a copy via e-mail.
>
> Based on my analysis of this "100,000 speakers"
> claim, I would tend to
> take with a grain of salt any claims of an actual
> percentage of speakers
> within a community needed to maintain a language as
> a means of everyday
> use. Not least because journalists' favorite way to
> use the 100,000
> speakers claim in Scotland is as "scientific proof"
> of the supposedly
> imminent (or even completed) death of Scottish
> Gaelic, and as an argument
> against public funding for Gaelic revitalization
> efforts.
>
> Regards,
>
> Emily McEwan-Fujita
> ecmcewan at alumni.uchicago.edu
>
>
> > --- Nicholas Ostler <nostler at chibcha.demon.co.uk>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Dear All
> > >
> > > This is a question, rather than a bit of
> > transmitted
> > > news.
> > >
> > > It is sometimes claimed that there is a critical
> > > proportion of speakers
> > > of a given language in a multilingual community
> > that
> > > must be maintained,
> > > if that language is to continue in everyday use.
> > > Such a claim makes
> > > sense in a context where there is a background
> > > metropolitan language
> > > (typically English, but it could as easily be
> > > Portuguese, Russian,
> > > Spanish or Chinese) that is under no threat, and
> > > spoken by numbers
> > > approaching 100% . The other, less widely
> spoken,
> > > language can only
> > > survive in stable bilingualism with this
> > background
> > > language if there is
> > > a fair presumption, within a given community,
> that
> > > enough listeners are
> > > there to understand it.
> > >
> > > The idea, then, is that there is a kind of
> tipping
> > > point, or a threshold
> > > of the slippery slope, perhaps as high as 70%;
> if
> > > the lesser-speaking
> > > community dips below this proportion, it will
> tend
> > > to diminish further,
> > > until (without active policy measures) it might
> > die
> > > out altogether. But
> > > above this proportion, its numbers can vary up
> and
> > > down with no
> > > long-term effect or trend visible.
> > >
> > > Is there a percentage figure one could give, and
> > if
> > > so is there any
> > > research that bears directly on this point?
> > >
> > > Nicholas Ostler
> > >
> > > --
> > > Foundation for Endangered Languages
> > > Registered Charity: England and Wales 1070616
> > > 172 Bailbrook Lane, Bath BA1 7AA, England
> > > +44-1225-852865 nostler at chibcha.demon.co.uk
> > > http://www.ogmios.org
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> > Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2005 11:00:42 -0500 (EST)
> From: "Harold F. Schiffman"
> <haroldfs at ccat.sas.upenn.edu>
> To: Language Policy-List
> <lgpolicy-list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu>
> Subject: Revitalizing Igbo
>
> Revitalising the Igbo Language
>
> Daily Champion (Lagos)
> November 28, 2005
>
> By Adiekwue A. Lotanna
> Enugu
>
> Okuko n'akpa nni, anya ufie akonaya (while a chicken
> scants for food, it
> should not lose sight of other odd happenings around
> it) is a brief but
> all encompassing statement of wisdom used to capture
> the essence of
> guarded sovereignty - which in the instance of this
> write-up will factor
> in on the plight of our dear but scantily revered
> Igbo language. Some
> people do not think it is an overstatement to refer
> to our language - the
> Igbo language as being endangered and facing
> gargantuan threats of
> extinction going by its declining level of
> acceptability amongst umuigbo.
> It is disheartening to see a language that is
> supposed to be an insignia,
> a trademark and a common identity amongst us rather
> than being proudly
> flaunted as treated with so much scorn and disdain.
> We seem to have
> jettisoned the inter-generational transmission of
> the Igbo language in
> exchange for 'newer trends', which include the
> Nigerian pidgin English and
> the English language with their obvious linguistic
> threats.
>
> Language in its general connotation is the vehicle
> with which the culture
> and traditions of a people are transmitted from
> generation to generation,
> and it also helps to enshrine unity, peace and
> decorum within a given
> society. Consequently therefore, when a people
> cannot defend their
> language, they automatically become an endangered
> specie, i.e. one with no
> definite distinguishable language and cultural
> identity. A clarion call
> was made by UNESCO who warned that many languages
> would be extinct by the
> end of the 21st century. It therefore behoves
> umuigbo to salvage our
> heritage from decadence by elevating the Igbo
> language at all levels of
> the Igbo society.
>
> Revitalizing the Igbo language means that our
> children should be taught
> the language straight from our homes. A scenario
> where a second language
> (English) takes precedence over our first language
> (Igbo) in an Igbo
> family household, does not do well for the survival
> of the language.
> Parents therefore owe it as a point of sacred duty
> to our fatherland to
> teach their young infants who are still learning the
> rudiments of our dear
> language because it is only in a family setting that
> kids are easily prone
> to learning their local dialects. Out there in the
> school (kindergarten
> and primary) where they mingle with children from
> other ethnic groups,
> vernaculars are usually suspended while the English
> language ascends into
> dominance. I had a personal experience in my home
> sometime in my junior
> secondary days when our mum sensing her children
> were no longer proficient
> enough in spoken English language and gave us a very
> bizzare rule. I know
> so many readers of this piece can easily guess what
> this rule is without
> losing much steam. Well, without further semantics,
> her rule stated that
> the speaking of Igbo in the house be suspended till
> further notice.
> Obediently but ignorantly, we complied. You could
> imagine us then brimming
> with youthful exuberance at the thought of having
> our English arsenal
> sharpened and ready to unleash a barrage on any
> unfortunate creature whose
> prowess does not march ours. We finally secured a
> victim in the person of
> the housegirl we had then who more often than not
> confused Igbo with
> English while talking. The rule finally fell apart
> because at some point,
> we all naturally got tired of blowing hot grammar
> and mum equally got fed
> up with the role of an enforcer which she bestowed
> on herself. Dad also
> intervened to save the situation because the whole
> thing didn't make much
> sense.
>
> This is an example of what is obtainable in many
> Igbo-speaking families
> today where you can only guess that a household is
> ndigbo by the names
> they call each other but just listen for a little
> while longer to see if a
> simple bia will slip out from the tongue of any one
> of the family members,
> you're in for a wait till thy kingdom come. Now tell
> me when the English
> speaking virus has infected both the elderly and
> young ones alike, who is
> going to be the proverbial one-eyed beggar that will
> lead a colony of
> completely blind beggars? There is an Igbo adage
> that says okenye amanno,
> ewu amayepu na-ogbuli (an elder will not sit back
> while the goat releases
> itself from the rope that holds it bound to a spot).
> But in this instance,
> some elders have been found wanting.
>
> The dwindling fortunes of the Igbo language must be
> halted by any means so
> as to avoid posterity's wrath. It calls for
> concerted efforts from all
> stakeholders in the Igbo project because generations
> yet unborn should be
> able to raise their heads high and say that they are
> ndigbo by virtue of
> the fact that they can speak the language. The
> family as the bedrock of
> any form of learning should inculcate the primary
> essence of language
> learning in a child before he or she is exposed to
> the vagaries and
> vicissitudes of a cosmopolitan society.
>
> A Research Centre For Igbo Studies should be set up
> to articulate
> strategies and policies that would guide us through.
> This centre could be
> an arm of our apex socio-cultural organizing
> symposiums, workshops and
> seminars that will educate and enlighten school
> pupils, market women,
> business men/traders, civil servants etc on the need
> for proficiency in
> written and oral literature. This department can
> partner with traditional
> rulers, prominent sons and daughters of Igboland and
> civil society groups
> to surmount this arduous task. An orthography
> committee should then be set
> up to formulate modalities for producing an Igbo
> language Dictionary.
> Publishers can publish daily, weekly or even monthly
> newspapers and
> bulletins in Igbo language and circulated to every
> nook and cranny of this
> nation.
>
> The state governments of the eastern region should
> make the teaching of
> the language mandatory at both the primary and
> secondary levels of
> education for both public and primary schools.
> Pupils should then be
> encouraged to take up Igbo literature courses in
> tertiary institutions by
> the award of exclusive scholarships and special
> bursary allowance packages
> in their favour. The federal government should on
> its part, make concerted
> efforts at arresting the declining fortunes of
> Nigerian languages by
> ensuring the practical realization of the language
> policy statements as
> enunciated in the National Policy on Education.
>
> Government should enact a policy that will scale
> down the influence of the
> English Language in our curriculae at the secondary
> level thereby making
> it no longer a compulsory subject in WAEC exams. In
> its stead, students
> should be encouraged to study the literature of
> their native dialects and
> mandatorily pass them with a credit (in the least)
> in the senior exams.
>
> Adiekwue A. Lotanna, writes from Enugu
>
>
http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/200511280234.html
>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Copyright 2005 Daily Champion. All rights reserved.
> Distributed by
> AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).
>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2005 17:20:46 -0500 (EST)
> From: "Harold F. Schiffman"
> <haroldfs at ccat.sas.upenn.edu>
> To: Language Policy-List
> <lgpolicy-list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu>
> CC: Roy Eidelson <royeidel at psych.upenn.edu>
> Subject: House bill 2089 (Pennsylvania) to
> officialize English
>
> To language policy list members in the Philadelphia
> area:
>
> As you may know, the Pennsylvania legislature is
> considering legislation
> that would lead to the officialization of English
> (House bill 2089). The
> Consortium is sponsoring the following talk by
> Babette Josephs, a
> legislator from Philadelphia. Ms. Josephs has
> already attempted to table
> the legislation, so she has first-hand knowledge of
> what is going on in
> Harrisburg.
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>
> The Consortium for Language Policy and Planning
> presents a talk by State
> Representative Babette Josephs on the Pennsylvania
> Official Language Act
> (House Bill No. 2089).
>
> When: Friday, December 9, 2005 12-1:30 pm
>
> Where: Solomon Asch Center
> St. Leonard's Court Building
> Suite 305 on floor 3A
> 3819-33 Chestnut Street
> ENTER ON 39TH STREET
>
> Please bring your own lunch.
>
> Abstract:
> The House State Government Committee recently
> considered H.B. 2089 (the
> Pennsylvania Official Language Act), which would
> make English the official
> language of the state and designate it as the
> language to be used for official
> government acts and documents. Josephs, Democratic
> chairwoman of the
> committee, made the motion to table; all Democratic
> members voted with her, as
> well as four Republicans. In this talk she will
> discuss the creation and
> development of this bill, its legal and social
> implications, and its future in
> the legislative process.
>
> About Babette Josephs:
> Babette Josephs serves the 182nd District of
> Philadelphia in the Pennsylvania
> House of Representatives, to which she has been
> elected since 1984. She has
> been the Democratic chair of the State Government
> Committee since 2001 and she
> serves on the board of the Pennsylvania American
> Civil Liberties Union, among
> numerous other civil and governmental appointments.
> To learn more about Rep.
> Josephs, visit her website:
>
> http://babette.org/
>
> For more information about the Consortium for
> Language Policy and Planning
> visit:
>
> http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/plc/clpp/
>
>
> Directions to the Asch Center:
> The Asch Center is located in Suite 305 at St.
> Leonard's Court (on the corner
> of 39th and Chestnut). The main entrance is on 39th
> Street across from the
> Boston Market parking lot. Suite 305 is reached by
> taking the elevator up
> to "3A," turning right and then left. Upon entering
> the Asch Center, walk
> down the long corridor to the seminar room.
>
> *****
>
"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes that you cando these things. Among them are a few Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."--President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1952
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