Title: Topic 6: Language shift and language death

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Topic 6 Language shift and language death

 Holmes Chapter 3
 Key concepts
 Language shift
 Language death
 Language revival
 Language vitality
 Language maintenance

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Language shift

 A community shifts from using one language for

most purposes to using a different one
 One language replaces the roles and functions of
another language in a community
 A strong language becomes weak a weak language
becomes strong in a community

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Direction of language shifts

 Whose language would be stronger?

 seller ------------- buyer
 minority ------------- majority
 poor --------------- wealthy
 low social status ---------high social status
 ruled -------------- ruler

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Factors contributing to language shift

 Economic factor
 Seller ------------- buyer
 Demographic factor
 Minority ------------- majority
 Social factor
 Poor --------------- wealthy
 Low social status ---------high social status
 Political factor
 Ruled -------------- ruler

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What factor(s) account(s) for the following
movements of languages in HK?
  1) PTH has become more important in HK after 1997
(political factor)
 2) PTH has become a more important language than
English for people working in the retailing
industry (economic factor)
 3) Cantonese has replaced some major functions of
English in HK in the past decades e.g. a) the
language of the government b) the language of HK
Legislative Council c) the medium of instruction
in secondary schools.
 (political and demographic factors)

 4) The Filipinos are the biggest group of foreign

population in HK (2.1) but their language is not
as popular as that of the British which make up
only 0.3 of the HK population in 2001. (social
factor)
 5) The HK population using other Chinese dialects
as a usual language has decreased from 7 in 1991
to 5.5 in 2001. (social and demographic factors)

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Language Death

 How can a language die?

 1) when all the people who speak that language
die
 2) when the domains in which a language is used
are totally replaced by another language
 3) when a language is suppressed by a political
power
 Which is more likely to die, a standard language
or a dialect?

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Language revival/ revitalization

 What brings dead/dying languages back

 to life?
 New Zealand Maori (cultural crisis)
 Israel Hebrew (nationalism)
 Taiwan Taiwanese (political independence)
 Wales Welsh (cultural identity)
 Who brings dead/dying languages back to life?
 Acceptance by Institutions (i.e. government,
university, church, media etc.)
 Acceptance by people

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Ethnolinguistic Vitality

 Ethno different ethnic groups

  Ethnolinguistic different ethnic groups
speaking different languages
 Vitality strength

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Three factors to assess ethnolinguistic vitality

 Howard Giles
 Social status of the speakers
 Demographic strength
 Institutional support

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Ethnolinguistic Vitality

 Giles et al (1977309) suggest three main factors

in assessing the vitality of different
ethnolinguistic groups viz. Status, Demographic
Strength and Institutional Support. The Status
variable is about the prestige of the target
linguistic group. The Demographic variables are
related to the number of members in a linguistic
group and their distribution in the territory.
Lastly, Institutional Support refers to the
degree to which a language is used in various
institutions e.g. the government, church,
schools, media. Giless theory was devised to
examine the interrelationship between different
ethnolinguistic groups in a multi-racial society.

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Language vitality

 A language will last long and remain strong

 in a community if
 The social status of the target language speakers
remains high
 The number of people using the target language
remains large
 Institutional support to the target language
remains high.

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How can a minority language be maintained?

 If a language is an important identity marker

 If a minority group is cohesive (e.g. China
Town)
 If a minority group keeps close contact with the
homeland
 If a minority language gets institutional support