'Status' drives extinction of languages

[Stan & Sandy Anonby]

Hi Christina!

Good point. And that may be at the core of why we are seeing more language
shift now than ever before. With urbanization comes the possibility of
upward social mobility.

Stan

PS: I'll paste the article below:

'Status' drives extinction of languages
Bob Beale
ABC Science Online

 Thursday, 21 August 2003





A language's status in society is the best way to predict if it is
headed for extinction Languages evolve and compete with each other
much like plants and animals, but those driven to extinction are
almost always tongues with a low social status, U.S. research shows.
The social status of a language is the most accurate way of predicting
whether it will survive, argue researchers in a paper appearing today
in the journal, Nature . They also suggest that active intervention to
boost the status of rare and endangered languages can save them.
"Thousands of the world's languages are vanishing at an alarming rate,
with 90% of them being expected to disappear with the current
generation," warned Dr Daniel Abrams and Professor Steven Strogatz,
both of Cornell University in New York.

The pair have developed a simple mathematical model of language
competition to explain how dialects such as Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and
Quechua - the most common surviving indigenous language in the
Americas - have lost out to more dominant tongues.
The model is based on data they collected on the number of speakers of
endangered languages - in 42 regions of Peru, Scotland, Wales,
Bolivia, Ireland and Alsaçe-Lorraine - over time. All have been in
steep decline over the past century or so, and the model suggests that
Scottish Gaelic and Quechua will be close to extinct by about 2030.

Previous models of language dynamics have focused on the transmission
and evolution of syntax, grammar or other structural properties of a
language itself. Yet by comparing various influences that help to
explain the steadily declining numbers of speakers of each language,
Abrams and Strogatz singled out status as the single most significant
factor that could predict its extinction threat.

"Quechua, for example, still has many speakers in Huanuco, Peru," they
note. "But its low status is driving a rapid shift to Spanish, which
leads to an unfortunate situation in which a child cannot communicate
with his or her grandparents." A language's fate generally depends on
both its number of speakers and its perceived status, the latter
usually reflecting the social or economic opportunities afforded to
its speakers, they said. When two languages are in competition, the
one that offers the greatest opportunities to its speakers will
usually prevail.

The researchers point out that bilingual societies do exist: "But the
histories of countries where two languages co-exist today generally
involve split populations that lived without significant interaction,
effectively in separate, monolingual societies. Only recently have
these communities begun to mix, allowing language competition to
begin." They urged active intervention to slow the global rate of
language decline, pointing out that their model also predicts that
higher status will keep a language alive. They also cite a real-life
instance where this has happened: "The example of Québec French
demonstrates that language decline can be slowed by strategies such as
policy-making, education and advertising, in essence increasing an
endangered language's status."
Similar measures may make a difference elsewhere, they argued.

http://www.clipclip.org/Bevsiem/clips/detail/66166


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Christina Paulston" <paulston+ at pitt.edu>
To: <lgpolicy-list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu>
Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2008 2:40 PM
Subject: Re: 'Status' drives extinction of languages


> Well, if you are going to talk about status and lge shift, you must  make
> sure that you have the possibility of upward social mobility.  In  a caste
> like social organization with ascribed status, status is not  going to
> bring about shift.  According to (what I think is one of the  brightest
> sociolinguists around) Annamalai  And I wonder if something  of the same
> thing may not be going on in cases of Ferguson's classic  diglossia where
> you get lge maintenance beyond what you would expect.   But I seem to have
> missed the article you are discussing.  Could  someone forward me a copy,
> please
> On Feb 14, 2008, at 12:54 PM, Stan & Sandy Anonby wrote:
>
>> Interesting. Sounds like it's broadly researched.  I've got a couple  of
>> comments.
>>
>> 1) I wonder how widely the status argument can be applied. For  instance,
>> the article says the researchers point out that bilingual  societies do
>> exist: "But the histories of countries where two  languages co-exist
>> today generally involve split populations that  lived without significant
>> interaction, effectively in separate,  monolingual societies. Only
>> recently have these communities begun to  mix, allowing language
>> competition to begin."
>>
>> Maybe the populations lived without significant interaction because  the
>> status difference was so great. Maybe mixing happened recently  only
>> because the lower status language began to gain prestige.
>>
>> 2) I believe that the increased status of French in Quebec may have
>> helped in creating a larger percentage of speakers there. However, I
>> think larger factors included the flight of English speakers and  large
>> immigration from Francophone countries.
>>
>> Stan Anonby
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Harold Schiffman" <hfsclpp at gmail.com
>> >
>> To: "lp" <lgpolicy-list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu>
>> Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2008 11:27 AM
>> Subject: 'Status' drives extinction of languages
>>
>>
>>> 'Status' drives extinction of languages
>>> Bob Beale
>>> ABC Science Online
>>>
>>> Thursday, 21 August 2003
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> A language's status in society is the best way to predict if it is
>>> headed for extinction Languages evolve and compete with each other
>>> much like plants and animals, but those driven to extinction are
>>> almost always tongues with a low social status, U.S. research shows.
>>> The social status of a language is the most accurate way of  predicting
>>> whether it will survive, argue researchers in a paper appearing today
>>> in the journal, Nature . They also suggest that active intervention  to
>>> boost the status of rare and endangered languages can save them.
>>> "Thousands of the world's languages are vanishing at an alarming  rate,
>>> with 90% of them being expected to disappear with the current
>>> generation," warned Dr Daniel Abrams and Professor Steven Strogatz,
>>> both of Cornell University in New York.
>>>
>>> The pair have developed a simple mathematical model of language
>>> competition to explain how dialects such as Welsh, Scottish Gaelic  and
>>> Quechua - the most common surviving indigenous language in the
>>> Americas - have lost out to more dominant tongues.
>>> The model is based on data they collected on the number of speakers  of
>>> endangered languages - in 42 regions of Peru, Scotland, Wales,
>>> Bolivia, Ireland and Alsaçe-Lorraine - over time. All have been in
>>> steep decline over the past century or so, and the model suggests  that
>>> Scottish Gaelic and Quechua will be close to extinct by about 2030.
>>>
>>> Previous models of language dynamics have focused on the transmission
>>> and evolution of syntax, grammar or other structural properties of a
>>> language itself. Yet by comparing various influences that help to
>>> explain the steadily declining numbers of speakers of each language,
>>> Abrams and Strogatz singled out status as the single most significant
>>> factor that could predict its extinction threat.
>>>
>>> "Quechua, for example, still has many speakers in Huanuco, Peru,"  they
>>> note. "But its low status is driving a rapid shift to Spanish, which
>>> leads to an unfortunate situation in which a child cannot communicate
>>> with his or her grandparents." A language's fate generally depends on
>>> both its number of speakers and its perceived status, the latter
>>> usually reflecting the social or economic opportunities afforded to
>>> its speakers, they said. When two languages are in competition, the
>>> one that offers the greatest opportunities to its speakers will
>>> usually prevail.
>>>
>>> The researchers point out that bilingual societies do exist: "But the
>>> histories of countries where two languages co-exist today generally
>>> involve split populations that lived without significant interaction,
>>> effectively in separate, monolingual societies. Only recently have
>>> these communities begun to mix, allowing language competition to
>>> begin." They urged active intervention to slow the global rate of
>>> language decline, pointing out that their model also predicts that
>>> higher status will keep a language alive. They also cite a real-life
>>> instance where this has happened: "The example of Québec French
>>> demonstrates that language decline can be slowed by strategies such  as
>>> policy-making, education and advertising, in essence increasing an
>>> endangered language's status."
>>> Similar measures may make a difference elsewhere, they argued.
>>>
>>> http://www.clipclip.org/Bevsiem/clips/detail/66166
>>>
>>> -- 
>>> **************************************
>>> N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to
>>> its members
>>> and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner
>>> or sponsor of
>>> the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who
>>> disagree with a
>>> message are encouraged to post a rebuttal. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)
>>> *******************************************
>>>
>>
>