LL-L "Language survival" 2005.03.29 (05) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

======================================================================
L O W L A N D S - L * 25.JAN.2005 (05) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
http://www.lowlands-l.net * lowlands-l at lowlands-l.net
Rules & Guidelines: http://www.lowlands-l.net/index.php?page=rules
Posting: lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org or
lowlands-l at lowlands-l.net Server Manual:
http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/1.8c/userindex.html
Archives: http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/lowlands-l.html
Encoding: Unicode (UTF-8) [Please switch your view mode to it.]
=======================================================================
You have received this because you have been subscribed upon request.
To unsubscribe, please send the command "signoff lowlands-l" as message
text from the same account to listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org or
sign off at http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html.
=======================================================================
A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
=======================================================================

From: Mark Williamson <node.ue at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Delectables" 2005.03.28 (14) [E]

Mike, Navajo has only recently been committed to writing, and even
today most elders and even 30 year olds don't know how to write in
Navajo.

Yet Navajo is still the most vibrant Native American language in the US.

The same goes for Western Apache, O'odham, Hopi, etc.: the reasons for
these languages surviving is the individual circumstances. Arizona and
New Mexico did not undergo the same sort of conquest by whites that
other areas did. Rather than centuries of farmers shooting at natives
and long, drawn-out conflicts and forced assimilation, most nations in
the area still had a great degree of independence when the area became
part of the US in the late 1800s. Although settlers did do some pretty
mean things to the Native Americans, such mistreatment in New Mexico
and Arizona wasn't widespread until perhaps 1910, and after that it
lasted in various forms until the 1960s, when it was tuned down a
notch (and again in the 1970s), although it still persists today to
some degree.

The current situation of Passamaquody is not due to its having been
committed to writing but rather a greater awareness of language death
and decline and what that means for the culture and the people and the
land. Most Native American nations have started some sort of program
to promote the continued survival of the languages (unfortunately,
some don't exactly have the right ideas - most start thinking they can
revive it just by offering evening classes for adult learners), yet
not all of those nations with such programs have writing systems and
their success certainly doesn't depend on it.

Language death and survival is a matter of sociolinguistics and
involves plenty of factors, social, economic, and others, but rarely
involves whether or not a language is written. (and if it does, it's
usually because it contributes to parents' views of inferiority of the
indigenous language - if it doesn't have a written form, it must not
be as versatile a form of expression)

Mark

----------

From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Language survival

Thanks, Mark!

In some cases speakers consciously prefer to let their language die to
committing it to writing and scrutiny.  I have heard of such cases for
instance in Australia and in the American Pacific Northwest.  Someone I
know -- an "tribal" elder and a speaker of a Salishan language variety
used not far away from Seattle -- has been criticized by other (almost all
elderly) speakers because she collaborated in perfecting the writing
system, compiling dictionaries, teaching the language (to "tribals" and
"non-tribals" alike) and recording language corporae, mostly in the form
of folktales, with it a body of folklore.  Apparently, others consider
this secret or "internal" information and are resigned to the prospect of
the language dying with their generation.  This is not necessarily because
they find their ancestral language inferior but because they see
conservation as too much work for too little gain, and they consider this
to be the way of the world -- the cycle of life and death.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

================================END===================================
* Please submit postings to lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org.
* Postings will be displayed unedited in digest form.
* Please display only the relevant parts of quotes in your replies.
* Commands for automated functions (including "signoff lowlands-l") are
  to be sent to listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org or at
  http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html.
======================================================================