Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T00:17:09.829Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

14 - Language Endangerment and Standardization

Perspectives from the Fourth World

from Part III - Norms, Literacy and Education

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2021

By
Lynn Drapeau
Edited by
Wendy Ayres-Bennett  and
John Bellamy
Wendy Ayres-Bennett
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
John Bellamy
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Get access

Summary

A significant proportion of the threatened idioms of the world are small, pre-literate languages spoken by communities encapsulated within modern ‘developed’ countries (e.g. Canada, the USA, Australia and New Zealand) whose dominant population uses a European competitor language of great prestige and wide currency. This acute asymmetry has been referred to by some Canadian indigenous leaders as characterizing the ‘Fourth World’ languages. Growing concern about the future of these languages has led to a focus on developing indigenous language literacy to prevent or even to reverse their loss. Focusing on the ‘standardization’ of the Innu language spoken in Quebec (Canada), this case study addresses the issue of whether standardization can actually foster literacy in the indigenous language and curtail (or even reverse) shift to the dominant language. The chapter discusses the process of orthographic standardization among the Innus as it unfolded in the past fifty years. It compares it with similar contexts across the world. A growing consensus emerges that standardization and literacy skills in indigenous languages cannot prevent language loss, and it is doubtful that it can foster the revitalization of the receding language.

Keywords

indigenous languagesInnu languagelanguage planningindigenous literacystandardizationorthographylanguage endangermentdiglossiaesoteric speech communities
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Language Standardization , pp. 397 - 420
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Austin, P. K. & Sallabank, J., eds. (2011). The Cambridge Handbook of Endangered Languages. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Baraby, A.-M. (2004). Guide des conjugaisons en langue innue. Sept-Iles: Institut culturel et éducatif montagnais.Google Scholar
Baraby, A.-M. (2011). L’écrit dans une langue de tradition orale: Le cas de l’innu. In Drapeau, L., ed., Les Langues autochtones du Québec. Un patrimoine en danger. Quebec: Presses de l’Université du Québec, pp. 45–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burnaby, B., ed. (1985). Promoting Native Writing Systems in Canada. Toronto: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.Google Scholar
Burnaby, B. & MacKenzie, M. (2001). Cree decision making concerning language: a case study. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 22(3), 191–209.Google Scholar
Burnaby, B. & Philpott, D. (2007). Innu oral dominance meets schooling: new data on outcomes. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 28(4), 270–89.Google Scholar
Cahill, M. & Rice, K., eds. (2014). Developing Orthographies for Unwritten Languages. Dallas, TX: SIL International.Google Scholar
Cheshire, J. & Stein, D., eds. (1997). Taming the Vernacular: From Dialect to Written Standard Language. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Crystal, D. (2000). Language Death. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Swaan, A. (2001). Words in the World. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers.Google Scholar
Deumert, A. & Vandenbussche, W. (2003). Taxonomies and histories. In Deumert, A. & Vandenbussche, W., eds., Germanic Standardizations: Past to Present. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 1–14.Google Scholar
Dorian, N. C., ed. (1989). Investigating Obsolescence: Studies in Language Contraction and Death. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Drapeau, L. (1991). Dictionnaire montagnais-franc¸ais. Quebec: Presses de l’Université du Québec.Google Scholar
Drapeau, L. (1992). Rapport final sur le projet-pilote de Betsiamites: étude longitudinale. Montreal: Université du Québec à Montréal. Unpublished report.Google Scholar
Drapeau, L. (1995). Code-switching in caretaker speech and bilingual competence in a native village of Northern Quebec. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 113, 157–64.Google Scholar
Drapeau, L. (2014). Grammaire de la langue innue. Quebec: Presses de l’Université du Québec.Google Scholar
Drapeau, L. & Corbeil, J. C. (1996). The aboriginal languages in the perspective of language planning. In Maurais, J., ed., Quebec’s Aboriginal Languages. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, pp. 288–307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drapeau, L. & Mailhot, J. (1989). Guide pratique d’orthographe montagnaise. Quebec: Institut éducatif et culturel attikamek-montagnais.Google Scholar
Ellis, N. C., Natsume, M., Stavropoulou, K. et al. (2004). The effects of orthographic depth on learning to read alphabetic, syllabic, and logographic scripts. Reading Research Quarterly, 39(4), 438–68.Google Scholar
Ferguson, C. A. (1959). Diglossia. Word, 15, 325–40.Google Scholar
Fishman, J. (1987). Language spread and language policy for endangered languages. In Lowenberg, P. H., ed., GURT 87 – Language Spread and Language Policy: Issues, Implications and Case Studies. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, pp. 1–15.Google Scholar
Fishman, J. A. (1990). What is reversing language shift (RLS) and how can it succeed? Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 11(1–2), 5–36.Google Scholar
Fishman, J. A. (2000). Bilingualism with and without diglossia; diglossia with and without bilingualism. In Wei, L., ed., The Bilingualism Reader. London/New York: Routledge, pp. 81–8.Google Scholar
Fishman, J. A. (2001). Why is it so hard to save threatened languages? In Fishman, J. A., ed., Can Threatened Languages Be Saved? Reversing Language Shift Revisited: A Twentieth Century Perspective. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, pp. 1–22.Google Scholar
Franchetto, B. & Rice, K. (2014). Language documentation in the Americas. Language Documentation and Conservation, 8, 251–61.Google Scholar
Francis, N. & Reyhner, J. (2002). Language and Literacy Teaching for Indigenous Education: A Bilingual Approach. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garvin, P. L. (1959). The standard language problem: concepts and methods. Anthropological Linguistics, 1(3), 28–31.Google Scholar
Gatti, M. (2004). Littérature amérindienne du Québec: écrits de langue franc¸aise. Montreal: Éditions Hurtubise.Google Scholar
Goodfellow, A.-M., ed. (2009). Speaking of Endangered Languages: Issues in Revitalization. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar
Grenoble, L. A. & Whaley, L. J. (1998). Toward a typology of language endangerment. In Grenoble, L. A. & Whaley, L. J., eds., Endangered Languages: Current Issues and Future Prospects. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 2–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gupta, A. F. (1997). When mother-tongue education is not preferred. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 18(6), 496–506.Google Scholar
Hale, K., Krauss, M., Watahomigie, L. J. et al. (1992). Endangered languages. Language, 68(1), 1–42.Google Scholar
Hanzeli, V. (1969). Missionary Linguistics in New France: A Study of Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Descriptions of American Indian Languages. The Hague: Mouton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harbert, W. (2011). Endangered languages and economic development. In Austin, P. K. & Sallabank, J., eds., The Cambridge Handbook of Endangered Languages. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 403–22.Google Scholar
Harmon, D. & Loh, J. (2010). The index of linguistic diversity: a new quantitative measure of trends in the status of the world’s languages. Language Documentation and Conservation, 4, 97–151.Google Scholar
Haugen, E. (1966). Dialect, language, nation. American Anthropologist, 68(6), 922–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, J. (2002). ‘Expert rhetorics’ in advocacy for endangered languages: who is listening, and what do they hear? Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 12(2), 119–33.Google Scholar
Himmelmann, N. P. (2006). Language documentation: what is it and what is it good for? In Gippert, J., Himmelmann, N. P. & Mosel, U., eds., Essentials of Language Documentation. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 1–30.Google Scholar
Hinton, L. (2011). Revitalization of endangered languages. In Austin, P. K. & Sallabank, J., eds., The Cambridge Handbook of Endangered Languages. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 291–311.Google Scholar
Hinton, L. (2014). Orthography wars. In Cahill, M. & Rice, K., eds., Developing Orthographies for Unwritten Languages. Dallas, TX: SIL International, pp. 139–68.Google Scholar
Hornberger, N. H. (1988). Bilingual Education and Language Maintenance: A Southern Peruvian Quechua Case. Dordrecht: Foris.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hornberger, N. H. (1996). Indigenous literacies in the Americas. In Hornberger, N. H., ed., Indigenous Literacies in the Americas: Language Planning from the Bottom Up. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 3–16.Google Scholar
Hornberger, N. H. (2008). Can schools save indigenous languages? Policy and practice on four continents. In Hornberger, N. H., ed., Can Schools Save Indigenous Languages? London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 1–12.Google Scholar
Hot, A. (2010). L’école des Premie`res Nations au Québec. Montreal: Réseau de recherche Dialog & INRS. Retrieved from www.reseaudialog.ca/docs/CahiersDIALOG-201001.pdfGoogle Scholar
Karan, E. (2014). Standardization: what’s the hurry? In Cahill, M. & Rice, K., eds., Developing Orthographies for Unwritten Languages. Dallas, TX: SIL International, pp. 107–38.Google Scholar
King, K. A. (1999). Language revitalisation processes and prospects: Quichua in the Ecuadorian Andes. Language and Education, 13(1), 17–37.Google Scholar
Kroskrity, P. V. (2009). Language renewal as sites of language ideological struggle. The need for ‘ideological clarification’. In Reyhner, J. & Lockhard, L., eds., Indigenous Language Revitalization: Encouragement, Guidance and Lessons Learned. Flagstaff: Northern Arizona University, pp. 71–83.Google Scholar
La Brosse, J. B. de (1768). Montanicae linguae elementa. Ottawa: Deschâtelets Archive.Google Scholar
Lewis, M. P., Simons, G. F. & Fennig, C. D., eds. (2013). Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Dallas, TX: SIL International.Google Scholar
Lillehaugen, D. (2016). Why write in a language that (almost) no one can read? Twitter and the development of written literature. Language Documentation and Conservation, 10, 356–93.Google Scholar
Loh, J. & Harmon, D. (2014). Biocultural Diversity: Threatened Species, Endangered Languages. Zeist: WWF Netherlands.Google Scholar
Lüpke, F. (2011). Orthography development. In Austin, P. K. & Sallabank, J., eds., The Cambridge Handbook of Endangered Languages. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 312–36.Google Scholar
Mailhot, J. (1985). Implementation of mother-tongue literacy among the Montagnais: myth or reality? In Burnaby, B. ed., Promoting Native Writing Systems in Canada. Toronto: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, pp. 17–26.Google Scholar
Mailhot, J. (1997). Pour une orthographe unique de la langue innue. Sept-Iles: Institut culturel et éducatif montagnais.Google Scholar
Mailhot, J. & MacKenzie, M. (2012). Dictionnaire innu-franc¸ais. Sept-Iles: Institut Tshakapesh.Google Scholar
Manuel, G. & Posluns, M. (1974). The Fourth World: An Indian Reality. Don Mills: Collier-Macmillan.Google Scholar
Michelson, T. (1939). Linguistic classification of Cree and Montagnais–Naskapi dialects. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin, 123, 67–95.Google Scholar
Moseley, C., ed. (2010). Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger. Paris: UNESCO.Google Scholar
Mühlhäusler, P. (2000). Language planning and language ecology. Current Issues in Language Planning, 1(3): 306–67.Google Scholar
National Indian Brotherhood (1972). Indian Control of Indian Education. Ottawa: National Indian Brotherhood.Google Scholar
Nettle, D. & Romaine, S. (2000). Vanishing Voices: The Extinction of the World’s Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oudin, A.-S. & Drapeau, L. (1993). Langue et identité ethnique dans une communauté montagnaise bilingue. Revue québécoise de linguistique, 22(2), 75–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parsons-Yazzie, E. & Reyhner, J. (2009). Prospects for the Navajo language. In Goodfellow, A.-M., ed., Speaking of Endangered Languages: Issues in Revitalization. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 47–69.Google Scholar
Patrick, D. & Shearwood, P. (1999). The roots of Inuktitut-language bilingual education. Canadian Journal of Native Studies, 19(2), 249–62.Google Scholar
Patrick, D., Murasugi, K. & Polluq-Cloutier, J. (2018). Standardization of Inuit languages in Canada. In Lane, P., Costa, J. & De Korne, H., eds., Standardizing Minority Languages. New York: Routledge, pp. 135–52.Google Scholar
Rehg, K. (2004). The law of unintended consequences. Oceanic Linguistics, 43(2), 498–518.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rigsby, B. (1987). Indigenous language shift and maintenance in Fourth World settings. Multilingua, 6(4), 359–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robins, R. H. & Uhlenbeck, E. M., eds. (1991). Endangered Languages. Oxford: Berg Publishers.Google Scholar
Sebba, M. (2007). Spelling and Society: The Culture and Politics of Orthography around the World. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Statistics-Canada (2015). Aboriginal Statistics at a Glance. Ottawa: Statistics Canada Publications.Google Scholar
Thurston, W. R. (1988). How esoteric languages build a lexicon: esoterogeny in West New Britain. In Harlow, R. & Hopper, R., eds., VICAL 1: Papers from the Fifth International Conference on Austraonesian languages. Auckland; Linguistic Society of New Zealand, pp. 555–79.Google Scholar
UNESCO (1953). The Use of Vernacular Languages in Education. Paris: UNESCO.Google Scholar
Wagner, D. A., Spratt, J. E. & Ezzaki, A. (1989). Does learning to read in a second language always put the child at a disadvantage? Some counterevidence from Morocco. Applied Psycholinguistics, 10(1), 31–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whaley, L. J. (2011). Some ways to endanger an endangered language project. Language and Education, 25(4), 339–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolck, W. (1991). The standardization of Quechua: some problems and solutions. In von Gleich, U. & Wolf, E., eds., Standardization of National Languages. Hamburg: Unesco Institute for Education and Research Center for Multiculturalism and Language Contact, University of Hamburg, pp. 43–54.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×