[lg policy] Are dying languages worth saving?

[Chris Allen Thomas]

This is a very good point, and I am glad you brought it up!

----- Original Message -----
From: dzo at bisharat.net
To: "Language Policy List" <lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu>
Sent: Friday, April 15, 2011 5:35:26 PM
Subject: Re: [lg policy] Are dying languages worth saving?

Two quick thoughts:

1. "languages are in the hands of people, not politicians" is not a helpful dichotomy. Not that I need to point it out to this list, but the decision by authorities to not use a language as a medium of instruction, how a language may or may not be used in governance, and whether it should be mandated in signage, labelling etc. has an impact on both use of and perceptions of that language. 

2. Stepping aside from the focus of this article, there is a vast range of languages between those that are endangered and those that are widely spoken & dominant. It is as if endangered languages get all the discussion and dominant languages get all the resources (yes, another example of political decisions having a real impact on the "democracy" of language), while languages with numbers of speakers between say tens of thousands and a couple of million get little of either. Neglect of such non-endangered and non-dominant languages arguably has measurable social and economic costs well before we get to the point of discussing the extinction of the languages themselves. 

Don Osborn

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

-----Original Message-----
From: Ayaz Ahmed <ayazmardan at gmail.com>
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Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2011 14:16:36 
To: <lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu>
Reply-To: Language Policy List <lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu>
Subject: [lg policy] Are dying languages worth saving?

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PhD Candidate, Educational Linguistics 
Graduate School of Education 
University of Pennsylvania 

LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisallenthomas 

  

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