Bridging the gap between theory and practice in language revitalization efforts in Africa
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4314/gjl.v4i1.15Keywords:
African languages, language revitalization, language endangerment, language deathAbstract
This paper examines the increasing concerns about language endangerment in Sub-Saharan Africa, and assesses the necessity and practicality of language revitalization efforts in some situations in the region in light of a number of practical problems of implementation. The paper identifies the need for a clearer paradigm of revitalization efforts, and recommends an approach that recognizes the hard reality that not all endangered languages can receive attention toward functional restoration due to the practical matters involved. The paper proposes archival preservation in such cases, while strongly supporting functional revitalization where the concerned languages a meet some suggested thresholds of viability.
References
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Adegbija, Efurosibina, 2001. Saving threatened languages in Africa: A case study of Oko. In Joshua Fishman, ed., Can Threatened Languages be Saved? Reversing Language Shift Revisited pp. 284-308. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Are, Olushola, 2011. Toward a practical approach to the challenges of multilingualism in Africa. California Linguistics Notes, 34.1.
Available from: http://english.fullerton.edu/publications/cln/clnarchives/2011winter/Are-multilingualism.pdf (accessed 28 March 2014).
Amano, Tatsuya et al., 2014. Global distribution and drivers of language extinction risk. Available from: http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/281/1793/20141574.full.pdf (accessed 10th Oct., 2014)
Austin, K. Peter, 2006. Survival of languages. Lecture delivered at the 21st Annual Darwin College lecture series. Cambridge. Available from: http://www.mercator-research.eu/...files/...languages/Article%20EOLSS.doc (accessed 22 June 2014).
Blench, Roger, n.d. Endangered languages documentation. Available from:
http://www.rogerblench.info/Language/EL/ELOP.htm (accessed 20 May 2015).
_____, 2013. An Atlas of Nigerian Languages.
Available from: http://www.rogerblench.info/RBOP (accessed 21st June 2014).
_____, 1998. The status of the languages of Central Nigeria. In M. Brenzinger, ed., Endangered Languages in Africa pp. 187-206. Köln: Köppe Verlag.
Brenzinger, Matthias. 2007. Language endangerment in Southern and Eastern Africa. In Matthias Brenzinger, ed., Language Diversity Endangered pp. 179-203. Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter.
Connell, Bruce. 1997. Moribund languages of Nigeria Cameroun Border Land. Paper presented at the symposium on language endangerment in Africa, Liepzig. July 29-31, 1997.
De Graaf, Tjeerd and Matthias Brenzinger, 2005. Language endangerment, documentation, preservation and maintenance. Contribution to the UNESCO encyclopedia of life support systems. Available from:
www.merctor-esearch.eu/.../endangered_languages/Article%20EOLSS. (accessed 9 March, 2014)
Crystal, David, 2002. Language Death. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
_____, 1997. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Fishman, Joshua, 1991. Reversing Language Shift: Theoretical and Empirical Foundations. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Fishman, Joshua, 2001 Why is it so hard to save a threatened language? In Joshua Fishman, ed., Can Threatened Languages Saved? Reversing Language Shift Revisited pp. 1-22.Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Kiessling, Roland and Maarten Mous, 2004. Urban youth languages in Africa. Anthropological Linguistics 46.3: 303-341.
Lewis, M. Paul, Gary F. Simons and Charles D. Fennig, eds., 2015. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Eighteenth edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Online version, available from: http://www.ethnologue.com (accessed 5 July 2015).
Ministry of Education, South Africa, 2003. The Development of indigenous languages as mediums of instruction in higher education. Report compiled by the Ministerial Committee appointed by the Ministry of Education, South Africa (2003).
Mous, Maarten, 2003. Loss of linguistic diversity in Africa. In Mark Janse and Sijmen Tol, eds., Language Death and Language Maintenance: Theoretical, Practical and Descriptive Approaches pp. 157-170. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Obiero, O. John, 2010. From assessing language endangerment or vitality to creating and evaluating language revitalization programmes. Nordic Journal of African Studies 19.4: 201-226 Available from: http://www.njas.helsinki.fi/pdf-files/vol19num4/obiero.pdf (accessed 19 June 2014).
_____, 2008. Evaluating language revitalization in Kenya: the contradictory face and place of the local community factor. Nordic Journal of African Studies 17.4: 247–268. Available from: http://www.njas.helsinki.fi/pdf-files/vol17num4/obiero.pdf (accessed 19 June 2014).
Odejobi, Tunji and Tunde Adegbola, 2010. Engineering and computational issues in human computer interaction systems for supporting communication in African languages. In Rotimi Taiwo, ed., Handbook of Research in Discourse Behavior and Digital Communication: Language Structures and Social Interaction pp. 876-889. Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
Remco, Knooihuizen, 2006. Language shift, ethnolinguistic vitality and historical sociolinguistics: testing the models.
Available from: http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/~pgc/archive/2006/2006knooihuizen.pdf (accessed 26 May, 2013).
Russell, Bernard H., 1992. Preserving language diversity: computers can be a tool for making the survival of languages possible. Cultural Survival Quarterly. Available from: http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/mexico/preserving-language-diversity-computers-can-be-tool- (accessed 14 January 2014).
Seibert, Uwe, 2013. Languages of Adamawa State. Available from: http://archive.is/ocKMm (accessed 14 January 2014)
Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove, 2000. Linguistic Genocide in Education or Worldwide Diversity and Human Rights. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum.
The Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project. http://www.hrelp.org (accessed 20 February 2014)
UNESCO Activities for Safeguarding Endangered Languages. Available from: http://lingsib.iea.ras.ru/en/articles/smeets.shtml (accessed 20 February 2014)
Walsh, Michael, 2010. Why language revitalisation sometimes works. In John Hobson, Kevin Lowe, Susan Poetsch and Michael Walsh eds., Re-awakening Languages: Theory and Practice in the Revitalisation of Australia’s Indigenous Languages pp. 22-36. Sydney: Sydney University Press.
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Published
07/01/2015
How to Cite
Are, O. B. (2015). Bridging the gap between theory and practice in language revitalization efforts in Africa. Ghana Journal of Linguistics, 4(1), 15–31. https://doi.org/10.4314/gjl.v4i1.15
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