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You’ve come too late to learn our language, you
should have come earlier. Nowadays we are a
numbered people.
~ Marta Kongarayeva (born 1930), Tofa speaker
Hieber, Daniel W. 2011. Language endangerment: A history. Invited guest lecture, Anthropology 305: ‘Language & Culture’
Professor Amy L. Paugh, Nov. 1, 2011. Department of Anthropology, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA.
1
Pat Gabori
•One of the last 8
speakers of Kayardild
•Passed away in 2009
Hieber, Daniel W. 2011. Language
endangerment: A history. Invited
guest lecture Anthropology 305:
2
Boa Sr
•Last speaker of
Aka-Bo
•Passed away in
2010, at age ~85
Hieber, Daniel W. 2011. Language
endangerment: A history. Invited
guest lecture Anthropology 305:
3
Great Andamanese Languages
•Extinct
•Extinct
•Extinct
•Extinct
•Extinct
•Extinct
•Extinct
•Extinct
•Extinct
•7 speakers (2006)
•Aka-Bo
•Aka-Bea
•Akar-Bale
•Aka-Kede
•Aka-Kol
•Oko-Juwoi
• A-Pucikwar
•Aka-Cari
•Aka-Kora
•Aka-Jeru Hieber, Daniel W. 2011. Language
endangerment: A history. Invited
guest lecture Anthropology 305:
4
The Last Speakers of Chitimacha
Hieber, Daniel W. 2011. Language
endangerment: A history. Invited
guest lecture Anthropology 305:
5
Language Endangerment:
A History
Daniel W. Hieber
Rosetta Stone
November 10, 2011
Overview
1. State of Languages Today
2. History of the Causes
3. History of the Responses
4. Language Profile: Chitimacha
5. Language Profile: Navajo
Hieber, Daniel W. 2011. Language
endangerment: A history. Invited
guest lecture Anthropology 305:
7
THE STATE OF LANGUAGES
TODAY
1. Living Languages
2. Critically Endangered Languages
3. Countries by # of Languages
4. Languages by Vitality
5. Small & Large Languages
6. Poor Data
Hieber, Daniel W. 2011. Language
endangerment: A history. Invited
guest lecture Anthropology 305:
8
Hieber, Daniel W. 2011. Language
endangerment: A history. Invited
guest lecture Anthropology 305:
9
Countries by Number of Languages
Image courtesy of Worldmapper.com
Hieber, Daniel W. 2011. Language
endangerment: A history. Invited guest
lecture, Anthropology 305: ‘Language &
Culture’ Professor Amy L. Paugh, Nov. 1,
2011. Department of Anthropology, James
10
Critically Endangered Languages
Hieber, Daniel W. 2011. Language endangerment: A history. Invited guest lecture, Anthropology 305: ‘Language & Culture’
P f A L P h N 1 2011 D f A h l J M di U i i H i b VA
11
Languages by Vitality
Hieber, Daniel W. 2011. Language
endangerment: A history. Invited guest
lecture, Anthropology 305: ‘Language &
Culture’ Professor Amy L. Paugh, Nov. 1,
2011. Department of Anthropology, James
12
•Smallest
languages
3,586
•Mid-sized
languages
2,935
•Biggest languages
83
•8 million speakers
0.2%
•1,200 million
speakers
20.4%
•4,500
million
speakers
79.5%
Hieber, Daniel W. 2011. Language
endangerment: A history. Invited guest
lecture, Anthropology 305: ‘Language &
Culture’ Professor Amy L. Paugh, Nov. 1,
2011. Department of Anthropology, James
13
Koasati
Tunica
Natchez
Choctaw
Chitimacha?
Hieber, Daniel W. 2011. Language endangerment: A history.
Invited guest lecture, Anthropology 305: ‘Language & Culture’
Professor Amy L. Paugh, Nov. 1, 2011. Department of
14
CAUSES: FROM PREHISTORY TO
TODAY
1. The Original State of Language
2. The Agrarian Revolution
3. Languages Outgrow Their Borders
4. The Rise of the Nation-State
5. The Political Means
Hieber, Daniel W. 2011. Language
endangerment: A history. Invited
guest lecture Anthropology 305:
15
The Original State of Language
ante 8,000 BCE
•Language itself is 50,000 years old (at least)
•Population estimate, dawn of Neolithic: 10 million
•Size of communities is capped at several thousand until
5,000 BCE (city-states in the Fertile Crescent)
•Most languages had fewer than ~500 speakers
•Kayardild –probably never more than ~150 speakers
•Gurr-goni –stable 70 speakers for as long as anyone
remembers
•Number of languages peaked 10,000 y.a.
•~ 5,000 –20,000 languages
Hieber, Daniel W. 2011. Language endangerment: A history. Invited guest lecture, Anthropology 305: ‘Language & Culture’
Professor Amy L. Paugh, Nov. 1, 2011. Department of Anthropology, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA.
16
The Agrarian Revolution
8,000 BCE –5,000 BCE
•Shift to sedentary communities
•Speaker communities became larger
•Decrease in # of languages offset by population
expansion
•Renfrew-Bellwood Effect
•Decrease in deep-level diversity, i.e. the number of
unrelated stocks or deep lineages
•Decrease in number of language families
•First massive extinction of languages
•Didn’t happen everywhere
•Papua New Guinea still fits the pre-Neolithic model
Hieber, Daniel W. 2011. Language endangerment: A history. Invited guest lecture, Anthropology 305: ‘Language & Culture’
P f A L P h N 1 2011 D f A h l J M di U i i H i b VA
17
Languages Outgrow Their Borders
3000 BCE –1500 ACE
•Celtic (Europe, prehistory
–51 BCE
•Akkadian (Mesopotamia
ca. 2250 –500 BCE)
•Greek (Balkans, Persia,
Eastern Europe 1600 BCE
–1453 ACE)
•Hittite (Turkey 1750 –
1180 BCE)
•Aramaic (Mesopotamia ca.
700 BCE onward)
•Sanskrit (Southern Asia
500 BCE onward)
•Arabic (Middle East, North
Africa 622 –750 ACE)
•Latin (Europe, North
Africa, Middle East 753
BCE onward)
•Germanic (Northern
Europe (ca. 500 BCE
onward)
•Mandarin (221 BCE
onward)
•Nahuatl (Central Mexico
600 –1519 ACE
•Quechua (South America
ca. 1100? ACE –1572)
Hieber, Daniel W. 2011. Language
endangerment: A history. Invited
guest lecture Anthropology 305:
18
The Rise of the Nation-State
(1500 – 1900)
•Portuguese –Brazil, Southern Africa
•Dutch –Indonesia, South Africa, New England
• French – Europe, West Africa, North America,
Madagascar
•Russian –Northern Asia
• English – North America, India, Eastern Africa,
Australia
Hieber, Daniel W. 2011. Language
endangerment: A history. Invited
guest lecture Anthropology 305:
19
The Political Means
(1900 – today)
•Compulsory education
•New, post-colonial states
•Unintended consequences
•Konmité Pou Etid Kwéyòl (KEK) –Dominica (Patwa)
•Native Title legislation –Australia
•No Child Left Behind (NCLB)
•Continuation of linguistic nationalism
•English-Only legislation
•Imagined communities
•Reliance on State services, conducted in the language of the
State
Hieber, Daniel W. 2011. Language
endangerment: A history. Invited
guest lecture Anthropology 305:
20
RESPONSES & REVITALIZATION
1. The Spanish Missionaries
2. Colonial Explorations
3. The Boasian Linguists
4. The Rise of Generativism
5. Revitalization
Hieber, Daniel W. 2011. Language
endangerment: A history. Invited
guest lecture Anthropology 305:
21
The Spanish Missionaries
1500s – 1700s
•Alonso de Molina –Nahuatl
•Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians each
wanted their own Nahuatl grammar
•Tradition continued in S. America (Quechua), N.
America (Guale, Timucua; Florida), and Brazil
•Jesuits were excellent field linguists
•Numerous manuscripts lost when they were
expelled from Paraguay
•By 1700, 21 grammars were published
•Missionary work was (and is –SIL) common
globally
Hieber, Daniel W. 2011. Language endangerment: A history. Invited guest lecture, Anthropology 305: ‘Language & Culture’
P f A L P h N 1 2011 D f A h l J M di U i i H i b VA
22
Colonial Explorations
1700 – 1900
•Jefferson lists
•Bureau of American
Ethnology
•Roger Williams –
Narragansett (Rhode
Island)
•Intense interest in
comparative
linguistics
Hieber, Daniel W. 2011. Language
endangerment: A history. Invited
guest lecture Anthropology 305:
23
The Boasian Linguists
1900s – 1950s
•Franz Boas –describing each language and culture
in its own terms
•Sparked a whole cadre of field linguists
•Mary Haas
•Morris Swadesh
•Edward Sapir
•Benjamin Lee Whorf
•J. P. Harrington
•Margaret Mead
•Ruth Benedict
Hieber, Daniel W. 2011. Language
endangerment: A history. Invited
guest lecture Anthropology 305:
24
The Rise of Generativism
1950s – 1980s
•Leonard Bloomfield, Language (1933)
•Structuralist linguistics
•Comprehensive description of N. American
languages
•Meaning is irrelevant to understanding how
language operates
•Noam Chomsky, Syntactic Structures (1959)
•Transformational grammar
•Universal Grammar (later works)
•Introspection as a method
Hieber, Daniel W. 2011. Language
endangerment: A history. Invited
guest lecture Anthropology 305:
25
Revitalization
1990s – 2010s
• 1992 – Language publishes seminal article
•Ken Hale –On endangered languages and the
safeguarding of diversity
•Ken Hale –Language endangerment and the human
value of linguistic diversity
•Krauss –The world’s languages in crisis
•Training indigenous speakers as linguists (Hale)
•Journals (LD&C), Conferences (LD&D, SILS, SSILA),
Organizations (FEL, ELF)
•Recognition and support from the field
Hieber, Daniel W. 2011. Language
endangerment: A history. Invited
guest lecture Anthropology 305:
26
PROFILE OF AN ENDANGERED
LANGUAGE: CHITIMACHA
1. Prehistory
2. Interactions with the Europeans
3. Revitalization
Hieber, Daniel W. 2011. Language
endangerment: A history. Invited
guest lecture Anthropology 305:
27
Prehistory – 1940
•Lived in the Louisiana area for 2,500 –6,000 years
•Language isolate –possibly the first inhabitants
•1700 –diseases halved the population
•ca. 1706 –1718 –French colonists actively enslaved tribe
•1727 –Chitimacha rediscovered west of Mississippi
•1802 –Jefferson list collected by Martin Duralde
•1881 –1882 –Documented by Albert S. Gatschet
•1907 –1920 –Documented by John R. Swanton
•1917 –sold tribal land to the government
•1930 –population dropped to 51 people
•1930 –1934 –Language documented by Morris Swadesh
•1934 –Chief Benjamin Paul, last expertly fluent speaker, dies
•1940 –Delphine Ducloux, last proficient speaker, dies
•Documentation Hieber, Daniel W. 2011. Language
endangerment: A history. Invited
guest lecture Anthropology 305:
28
Revitalization
1990? - 2011
•2000 census –720 registered Chitimacha
•3 beginner –intermediate speakers
• 1995 – Revitalization program begins
• 2008 – Chitimacha Rosetta Stone begins
•Constructed from Swadesh’s documentation
• 2010 – Chitimacha Rosetta Stone released
•Being learned by every student in school
• 2010 – Preschool immersion program begins
•In progress –Chitimacha dictionary and grammar
Hieber, Daniel W. 2011. Language
endangerment: A history. Invited
guest lecture Anthropology 305:
29
PROFILE OF AN ENDANGERED
LANGUAGE: NAVAJO
1. History & Conflict
2. Navajo today
3. The Navajo Handprint
Hieber, Daniel W. 2011. Language
endangerment: A history. Invited
guest lecture Anthropology 305:
30
Navajo Today
•Most widely spoken American Indian language
• 1970 – 90% of BIA boarding school children spoke
Navajo
• 1992 – 18% of preschoolers knew Navajo
• 2011 – Less than 5% of school-aged children
• 2006 – Navajo Language Renaissance
• 2010 – Rosetta Stone released
•In progress –Navajo workbooks
Hieber, Daniel W. 2011. Language
endangerment: A history. Invited
guest lecture Anthropology 305:
31