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  1. Home
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  3. The Cambridge Handbook of Endangered Languages
  • Cited by 60
  • Edited by Peter K. Austin, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Julia Sallabank, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
June 2012
Print publication year:
2011
Online ISBN:
9780511975981
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511975981
Collection:
Cambridge Handbooks of Linguistics
Subjects:
Linguistic Anthropology, Sociolinguistics, English Language and Linguistics: General Interest, Anthropology, Language and Linguistics
Series:
Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics
Information

Book description

It is generally agreed that about 7,000 languages are spoken across the world today and at least half may no longer be spoken by the end of this century. This state-of-the-art Handbook examines the reasons behind this dramatic loss of linguistic diversity, why it matters, and what can be done to document and support endangered languages. The volume is relevant not only to researchers in language endangerment, language shift and language death, but to anyone interested in the languages and cultures of the world. It is accessible both to specialists and non-specialists: researchers will find cutting-edge contributions from acknowledged experts in their fields, while students, activists and other interested readers will find a wealth of readable yet thorough and up-to-date information.

Reviews

‘This handbook is an excellent assemblage of facts and ideas about the fast declining world's linguistic diversity. It is uniquely resourceful and comprehensive.'

Herman M. Batibo - Former President, World Congress of African Linguistics

‘This splendid handbook is an authoritative resource for those seeking to respond responsibly to ongoing loss of the world's languages.'

Nancy H. Hornberger - University of Pennsylvania

'The Cambridge Handbook of Endangered Languages is without a doubt a welcome contribution to the field of linguistics and language preservation. One of the key aspects of preserving minority languages is public engagement, so the production of easy to read and highly accessible texts such as this is an important step in the process. It is authoritative and comprehensive, providing both facts and current academic theory to great and provocative effect.'

Zoe Bartliff Source: LinguistList (www.linguistlist.org)

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Contents

Page 2 of 2

Contents
  • 20 - Endangered languages and economic development
    pp 403-422
  • View abstract

    Summary

    The spread of writing to vernacular languages, along with ideologies of language standardization and practices of manuscript curation, constituted language documentation on an enormous scale over a millennial time frame. This chapter considers how a broad, inclusive idea of endangered-language documentation might be framed in order best to realize its potential, avoid pitfalls, and meet its challenges. It also considers the context and development of endangered-language documentation in academic research. But the stakeholders in documentation include the communities in which endangered languages are spoken. The chapter focuses mainly on documentation and community stakeholders and has little to say of wider publics except as they may form part of the community context of endangered-language documentation. Linguists must be flexible and inventive about how and when to accomplish traditional linguistic agendas, and training takes centre stage as projects involve many people, with different expertise, roles and levels of training.
  • 21 - Researcher training and capacity development in language documentation
    pp 423-445
  • View abstract

    Summary

    The observation that guides this chapter is that the place of speakers in language documentation is being transformed by linguists' understanding of language endangerment not just as a problem of diminishing data for the science of language, but as a problem of social justice and human flourishing that calls upon linguistic expertise for its amelioration. The chapter addresses some of the main issues surrounding the role of speakers that we see emerging in documentary linguistics, bringing to bear examples both from linguistics and from neighbouring disciplines. There are situations in which the preservation of cultural form is alien to the ideological complex by which the cultural life of a community is constituted. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, intense public attention was drawn to the issue of minority and indigenous rights by a number of international and grassroots organizations.
  • 22 - New roles for endangered languages
    pp 446-458
  • View abstract

    Summary

    This chapter presents a brief outline of the relationship between data and language documentation. Three kinds of resources have long been given a special place in descriptive linguistics: texts, dictionaries and grammars. It has become standard practice for linguists documenting under-resourced languages to consider ways in which their work can result in outputs not only for use in academic spheres, but also community ones. The chapter explores the notion of an underlying data structure and introduces general aspects of the problem of encoding that structure in machine-readable format. It covers specific issues relating to the encoding of language data on a computer. Most of the documentary objects requiring metadata can be arranged in a hierarchy from more general to more specific using the categories project, corpus, session and resource. The chapter concludes with a discussion of linguist's responsibilities for navigating the relationship between their data and new technologies.
  • 23 - Planning a language-documentation project
    pp 459-482
  • View abstract

    Summary

    This chapter provides sufficient context to archival functions to help researchers and documenters create, deposit and use archival records. Effective archival management of endangered language documentation is dependent not only on the actions that archives take to acquire, preserve and provide access to records, but also on the foresight and contributions of the creators and prior custodians of those records. The chapter is organized around core archival functions: appraisal, accession, arrangement, description, preservation, access and use. When carrying out each of the core functions, the steps taken by an archive to preserve and provide access to documentation of endangered languages depend on the actions of creators and collectors of the material. In the past decade, several collecting repositories devoted primarily to language documentation have been founded. These archives are able to treat language documentation with subject-specific expertise and fuel progress on standards for metadata, citation and access.
  • References
    pp 483-553
  • View abstract

    Summary

    This chapter deals with digital archives and digital archiving of language materials, especially materials from endangered languages. Archives have traditionally made decisions about which materials they accept for deposit, based on their collection policy. Standards are important for the effective operation of digital archives. Standards are promoted in pursuit of three goals: quality, interoperability and the integrity of the archive's collections. Digital archives have to take account of many factors to ensure long-term preservation, from the broader political, organizational and financial issues that guarantee their sustainable operations, to budget and equipment planning, to technical details of scheduling automated tape backups. In an emerging field such as documentation of endangered languages, archives can draw on digital technologies and standards developed over the last forty years, but they have to provide discipline-specific facilities to meet the needs of their users.

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