Endangered language

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Language hierarchy: Threatened languages ​​are found among the local languages ​​on the lowest level of the pyramid

In sociolinguistics, a language is considered a threatened language (also endangered language ) if it is less and less learned as a mother tongue and threatens to cease to exist within a few generations. From language death is called when there are no native speakers. If a language is finally no longer spoken, it is considered extinct .

While the twenty largest of the 6,000 to 7,000 languages ​​are spoken by half and the approx. 300 languages ​​with over a million speakers are spoken by over 90% of the world's population, the vast majority of languages ​​have a linguistic community of just a few hundred or a thousand speakers. Depending on the estimate, between 50% and 90% of all living languages ​​will be seriously endangered or disappear in the 21st century. Typically, endangered languages ​​are minority languages in their respective countries, the speakers tend to switch to the dominant language. The minority languages ​​of indigenous peoples in North and South America, Australia, Asia and Siberia are particularly affected .

definition

There are different levels of threat. The related terms are used differently. The best known classification is based on the Atlas of Endangered Languages of UNESCO (LVE model):

  1. " Safely " ( safe ): The language is spoken by all generations and is freely passed on to younger generations.
  2. “ Potentially endangered ” ( vulnerable ): A language with a relatively high number of speakers that is passed on to the younger generations at least in large parts of its range. However, the language has certain limitations; she is z. B. unofficial administrative language or it is not present in education. Examples: Kurdish , Belarusian , Nahuatl , Quechua ( Southern Quechua in Bolivia and Peru ), Aymara , Tibetan .
  3. " Endangered " ( definitely endangered ): The language is no longer learned by children at home as their mother tongue. Examples: Upper Sorbian , Sardinian , Welsh , Mayathan (Yucatec Maya), Quechua (central and northern dialects in Peru), Kichwa , Nahuatl in central Mexico, Aramaic .
  4. " Seriously endangered (" severely endangered ): The language is spoken only by the grandparents' generation; the parents' generation may understand them, but do not use them to themselves and do not (or only exceptionally) pass them on to the younger generation. The few up-and-coming speakers have a much better command of the dominant language. Examples: Sater Frisian , Lower Sorbian , Breton , Matlatzinca , Jaqaru .
  5. “ Moribund ” ( critically endangered ): There are, with the possible exception of a few half-speakers, only older speakers, and even these only partially speak the language. The number of speakers is so low that it is extremely unlikely that the language will survive. Examples: numerous Indian languages ​​(e.g. Nawat (Pipil) , Itzá-Maya ), numerous Australian languages .
  6. " Extinct " ( extinct ): There are no more speakers. Examples: Gothic , Egyptian (Coptic), Livic .

Numbers 2 to 5 in this classification are considered threatened languages.

Many other classification methods for endangered languages ​​include many that use analogies to health (“healthy”, “weak” and “sick” languages). Non-threatened languages ​​are also referred to internationally as vigorous (“strong”), endangered languages ​​also as threatened (“threatened”), languages ​​that are no longer spoken but still known as dormant (“dormant”). Tasaku Tsunoda has identified the number of speakers, the age of the speakers, the transmission to children and the functions of the language in the respective community or society as decisive factors for most of the classifications.

These categories of threat can also be applied to a language regionally or to a specific national territory. Many languages ​​that are stable in their main language area and expand at the expense of minority languages ​​are seriously threatened or moribund elsewhere, even as minority languages. B. German in the Czech Republic , Poland and France ( Alsace ), Slovenian in Austria ( Carinthia and Styria ) or Spanish in the Philippines .

The EGIDS (Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale) of the organization SIL International is considered to be the most source-based, detailed and differentiated scale .

reasons

The Cambridge Handbook of Endangered Languages ​​identifies four reasons for language threat:

The reasons overlap and partly correlate. In the 19th century, for example, the political repression of the Irish population triggered famine , which decimated large parts of the population or drove them into emigration and thus also weakened the Irish language .

Today's increase in immigration and urbanization is contributing to a severe loss of traditional ways of life and is causing speakers of smaller languages ​​to adopt increasingly dominant languages ​​that are "necessary for full civic participation or at least perceived as such" .

Problem

If a language dies out, a complex knowledge system often disappears with it. The languages ​​of indigenous peoples are particularly affected . The loss of one of its languages ​​is of importance for all of humanity , as specific knowledge is lost through the death of its carrier, e.g. B. about their environment .

Daniel L. Everett , who studied the Pirahã language of the people of the same name as a linguist , emphasizes that the loss of language is to be equated with the loss of identity . For him, diversity is crucial, the different classifications and lifestyles, in order to guarantee the future of people. That's why he thinks it's important to record endangered languages ​​before they disappear forever.

Projects

The UNESCO published in 1996 the first atlas of endangered languages . An online version has been available since 2009 and is available in English, French, Spanish and Russian.

The Ethnologue-Report, which appears every four years, contains a list of over 500 almost extinct languages. It lists languages ​​of which “only a few older speakers are still alive”.

After a pilot phase from 2000 funded eight projects was supported by the Volkswagen Foundation , the project DoBeS (documentation of endangered languages) launched in 2002 until 2012, at which the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics has played a key role. Around 100 endangered languages ​​were documented in over 100 sub-projects.

literature

  • Gabriela Pérez Báez, Eve Okura Koller, Rachel Vogel: Comparative Analysis in Language Revitalization Practices: Addressing the Challenge , in: Kenneth L. Rehg, Lyle Campbell (Eds.): Oxford Handbook of Endangered Languages , Oxford University Press, 2018, pp. 466-489. ( academia.edu )

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Peter K. Austin, Julia Sallabank (Eds.): The Cambridge Handbook of Endangered Languages . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2011, ISBN 978-0521882156 , p. 1.
  2. ↑ Endangered languages. In: UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages ​​in Danger. Archived from the original on August 9, 2016 ; Retrieved October 19, 2012 .
  3. ↑ Tasaku Tsunoda: Language endangerment and Language Revitalization . Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, p. 16.
  4. ↑ UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages ​​in Danger (English). Retrieved October 25, 2012.
  5. ↑ a b Ethnologue-Report , print version of the 16th, last one-volume edition from 2009: ISBN 978-1556712166 ; The 19th edition (2016) is published in three volumes according to continents (Vol. 1: Africa and Europe; Vol. 2: America and the Pacific; Vol. 3: Asia).
  6. ↑ Tsunoda, pp. 9-13.
  7. ↑ Elena Mihas, Bernard Perley, Gabriel Rei-Doval and Kathleen Wheatley (Ed.): Responses to Language Endangerment. In honor of Mickey Noonan. New directions in language documentation and language revitalization. John Benjamin Publishing, 2013. pp. 9f.
  8. ↑ a b Austin, Sallabank, 5.
  9. ↑ Frequent Asked Questions on Endangered Languages . UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages ​​in Danger website. Retrieved October 19, 2012.
  10. ↑ Endangered languages: "You can't just google it and get it back". Survival International , accessed August 14, 2013.
  11. ^ Interview with Daniel L. Everett Retrieved August 14, 2013.
  12. ↑ Previous editions of the Atlas (1996, 2001) ( Memento from February 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  13. ↑ List of over 500 almost extinct languages ( memento from July 6, 2012 on WebCite )
  14. ↑ Volkswagen Foundation , as of July 12, 2016 ( Memento of August 17, 2017 in the Internet Archive )

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