Download or read book Endangered Languages in Africa written by Matthias Brenzinger and published by R. Koppe. This book was released on 1998 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Africa s Endangered Languages written by Jason Kandybowicz and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-07-10 with total page 521 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Relatively little is known about Africa's endangered languages. Unlike indigenous languages in Australia, North Asia, and the Americas, which are predominantly threatened by colonizers, African languages are threatened most immediately by other local languages. As a result, the threat of language extinction is perceived as lower in Africa than in other parts of the globe, and a disproportionate amount of research is devoted to the study of endangered African languages when compared to any other linguistically threatened region in the world. There are approximately 308 highly endangered languages spoken in Africa (roughly 12% of all African languages) and at least 201 extinct African languages. This volume hopes to illuminate and challenge this trend. Chapters offer both documentary and theoretical perspectives, emphasizing the symbiotic relationship between the two approaches and its implications for the preservation of endangered languages, both in the African context and more broadly. Documentary-oriented chapters deal with key issues in African language documentation including language preservation and revitalization, community activism, and data collection and dissemination methodologies, among others. Theoretically-oriented chapters provide detailed descriptions and analyses of phonetic, phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic phenomena, and connect these to current theoretical issues and debates. Africa's Endangered Languages provides thorough coverage of a continent's neglected languages that will spur linguists and Africanists alike to work to protect them.
Download or read book Language Documentation and Endangerment in Africa written by James Essegbey and published by John Benjamins Publishing Company. This book was released on 2015-10-15 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume brings together a number of important perspectives on language documentation and endangerment in Africa from an international cohort of scholars with vast experience in the field. Offering insights from rural and urban settings throughout the continent, these essays consider topics that range from the development of a writing system to ideologies of language endangerment, from working with displaced communities to the role of colonial languages in reshaping African repertoires, and from the insights of archeology to the challenges of language documentation as a doctoral project. The authors are concerned with both theoretical and practical aspects of language documentation as they address the ways in which the African context both differs from and resembles contexts of endangerment elsewhere in the world. This volume will be useful to fieldworkers and documentalists who work in Africa and beyond.
Download or read book Language Decline and Death in Africa written by Herman Batibo and published by Multilingual Matters. This book was released on 2005-01-01 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The aim of this book is to inform both scholars and the public about the nature and extent of the problem of language decline and death in Africa. It resourcefully traces the main causes and circumstances of language endangerment, the processes and extent of language shift and death, and the consequences of language loss to the continent's rich linguistic and cultural heritage. The book outlines some of the challenges that have emerged out of the situation.
Download or read book Language Diversity Endangered written by Matthias Brenzinger and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2015-07-31 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a comprehensive overview of endangered languages with a global coverage. It features such well-known specialists as Michael Krauss, Willem F. H. Adelaar, Denny Moore, Colette Grinevald, Akira Yamamoto, Roger Blench, Bruce Connell, Tapani Salminen, Olga Kazakevich, Aleksandr Kibrik, Jonathan Owens, David Bradley, George van Driem, Nicholas Evans, Stephen A. Wurm, Darrell Tryon and Matthias Brenzinger. The contributions are unique in analysing the present extent and the various kinds of language endangerment by applying shared general indicators for the assessment of language endangerment. Apart from presenting the specific situations of language endangerment at the sub-continental level, the volume discusses major issues that bear universally on language endangerment. The actual study of endangered languages is carefully examined, for example, against the ethics and pragmatics of fieldwork. Practical aspects of community involvement in language documentation are discussed, such as the setting up of local archives and the training of local linguists. Numerous case studies illustrate different language shift environments with specific replacing factors, such as colonial and religious conquests, migrations and governmental language education. The book is of interest to students and scholars of linguistics with particular focus on endangered languages (and their documentation), typology, and sociolinguistics as well as to anthropologists and language activists.
Download or read book Cataloguing the World s Endangered Languages written by Lyle Campbell and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-02-02 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cataloguing the World’s Endangered Languages brings together the results of the extensive and influential Catalogue of Endangered Languages (ELCat) project. Based on the findings from the most extensive endangered languages research project, this is the most comprehensive source of accurate information on endangered languages. The book presents the academic and scientific findings that underpin the online Catalogue, located at www.endangeredlanguages.com, making it an essential companion to the website for academics and researchers working in this area. While the online Catalogue displays much data from the ELCat project, this volume develops and emphasizes aspects of the research behind the data and includes topics of great interest in the field, not previously covered in a single volume. Cataloguing the World’s Endangered Languages is an important volume of particular interest to academics and researchers working with endangered languages.
Download or read book Globalisation and African Languages written by Katrin Bromber and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2011-07-20 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Globalisation and African Languages links African language studies to the concept of 'globalisation' which increasingly undergoes critical review. Hence, African linguists of various provenience can make valuable contributions to this debate. In cultural matters, which by definition include language, there is often a sense that globalisation leads to a major trend of homogenisation, which results in a reduction of diversity on the one hand and, on the other, in new themes being incorporated into global (cultural) patterns. However, often conflicting and overlapping particularistic interests exist which have a constructive as well as destructive potential. This aspect leads directly to the first of three sections of this volume, LANGUAGE USE AND ATTITUDES, which addresses some of the burning issues in sociolinguistic research. Since this research area is tightly linked to the educational domain these important issues are addressed in articles that comprise the second section of this volume: LANGUAGE POLICY AND EDUCATION. The third section of the volume presents articles dealing with LANGUAGE DESCRIPTION AND CLASSIFICATION demonstrating which parts of different language systems are affected through contact under historical and modern conditions. The contributions of all the well-known scholars in this volume show that globalisation is a two-way street, and to ensure that all sides benefit in a reciprocal manner means the impacts have to be monitored globally, regionally, nationally and locally. By disseminating and emphasising these linguistic findings as part of the global cultural heritage, African language studies may offer urgently needed new perspectives towards a rapidly changing world.
Download or read book Language Vitality in South Africa written by Anika Kehl and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2014-08-21 with total page 47 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Pedagogy, Literature Studies, grade: 1,3, Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald (Anglistik/Amerikanistik), course: Hauptseminar: English in Contact, language: English, abstract: There are 24 languages which are regularly used by more than 44.8 million South Africans and almost 80 % of the South African population use one of the African languages at home. “The most commonly spoken home language is isiZulu, which is spoken by 23.8 % of the population, followed by isiXhosa (17.6 %) and Afrikaans (13.3 %)” Although English is the home language of only 8.2 % of the South African population it is still used as a lingua franca throughout the nation. The eleven official languages are used by 99% of the country’s population and those languages are all supposed to have equal rights. Belonging to these languages are English and Afrikaans, and nine other African languages: “Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga, isiNdebele, isiXhosa, and isiZulu”. There are also many other languages spoken in South Africa like for example Arabic, German, Greek, Hindi, Tamil, Hebrew and many more. Some European languages like French, German, and Portuguese are used in South Africa but they are not nearly as influential as English. The historical development of South Africa has brought the question of language forward. The country became aware of its unique language situation and the chances and problems which are connected to it. After Mandela many people developed a greater interest in smaller languages. The paper is going to explore the language vitality of some of the 11 official South African languages, dealing with the problem of language endangerment/death and language reviltalisation. It is going to be seen whether the multilingualism which is propagandized by the government is or can be realised in real life. Due to the lack of valid information for many of the smaller indigenous Afrcian langugeas the paper will mostly look at the situation of Afrikaans and English, only rarely concidering the other languages in much detail.
Download or read book Languages in Africa written by Elizabeth C. Zsiga and published by Georgetown University Press. This book was released on 2015-03-03 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: People in many African communities live within a series of concentric circles when it comes to language. In a small group, a speaker uses an often unwritten and endangered mother tongue that is rarely used in school. A national indigenous language—written, widespread, sometimes used in school—surrounds it. An international language like French or English, a vestige of colonialism, carries prestige, is used in higher education, and promises mobility—and yet it will not be well known by its users. The essays in Languages in Africa explore the layers of African multilingualism as they affect language policy and education. Through case studies ranging across the continent, the contributors consider multilingualism in the classroom as well as in domains ranging from music and film to politics and figurative language. The contributors report on the widespread devaluing and even death of indigenous languages. They also investigate how poor teacher training leads to language-related failures in education. At the same time, they demonstrate that education in a mother tongue can work, linguists can use their expertise to provoke changes in language policies, and linguistic creativity thrives in these multilingual communities.
Download or read book Endangered Languages in the 21st Century written by Eda Derhemi and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-02-24 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Endangered Languages in the 21st Century provides research on endangered languages in the contemporary world, the challenges still to be faced, the work still to be done, and the methods and practices that have come to characterize efforts to revive and maintain disadvantaged indigenous languages around the world. With contributions from scholars across the field, the book brings fresh data and insights to this imperative, but still relatively young, field of linguistics. While the studies acknowledge the threat of losing languages in an unprecedented way, they focus on cases that show resilience and explore paths to sustainable progress. The articles are also intended as a celebration of the 25 years’ work of the Foundation for Endangered Languages, and as a parting gift to FEL’s founder and quarter-century chair, Nick Ostler. This book will be informative for researchers, instructors, and specialists in the field of endangered languages. The book can also be useful for university graduate or undergraduate students, and language activists. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
Download or read book Africa s Endangered Languages written by Jason Kandybowicz and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-07-10 with total page 521 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Relatively little is known about Africa's endangered languages. Unlike indigenous languages in Australia, North Asia, and the Americas, which are predominantly threatened by colonizers, African languages are threatened most immediately by other local languages. As a result, the threat of language extinction is perceived as lower in Africa than in other parts of the globe, and a disproportionate amount of research is devoted to the study of endangered African languages when compared to any other linguistically threatened region in the world. There are approximately 308 highly endangered languages spoken in Africa (roughly 12% of all African languages) and at least 201 extinct African languages. This volume hopes to illuminate and challenge this trend. Chapters offer both documentary and theoretical perspectives, emphasizing the symbiotic relationship between the two approaches and its implications for the preservation of endangered languages, both in the African context and more broadly. Documentary-oriented chapters deal with key issues in African language documentation including language preservation and revitalization, community activism, and data collection and dissemination methodologies, among others. Theoretically-oriented chapters provide detailed descriptions and analyses of phonetic, phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic phenomena, and connect these to current theoretical issues and debates. Africa's Endangered Languages provides thorough coverage of a continent's neglected languages that will spur linguists and Africanists alike to work to protect them.
Download or read book Endangered Languages and Languages in Danger written by Luna Filipović and published by John Benjamins Publishing Company. This book was released on 2016-10-03 with total page 413 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This peer-reviewed collection brings together the latest research on language endangerment and language rights. It creates a vibrant, interdisciplinary platform for the discussion of the most pertinent and urgent topics central to vitality and equality of languages in today’s globalised world. The novelty of the volume lies in the multifaceted view on the variety of dangers that languages face today, such as extinction through dwindling speaker populations and lack of adequate preservation policies or inequality in different social contexts (e.g. access to justice, education and research resources). There are examples of both loss and survival, and discussion of multiple factors that condition these two different outcomes. We pose and answer difficult questions such as whether forced interventions in preventing loss are always warranted or indeed viable. The emerging shared perspective is that of hope to inspire action towards improving the position of different languages and their speakers through research of this kind.
Download or read book Language Death written by David Crystal and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-11-06 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The rapid endangerment and death of many minority languages across the world is a matter of widespread concern, not only among linguists and anthropologists but among all concerned with issues of cultural identity in an increasingly globalized culture. By some counts, only 600 of the 6,000 or so languages in the world are 'safe' from the threat of extinction. A leading commentator and popular writer on language issues, David Crystal asks the fundamental question, 'why is language death so important?', reviews the reasons for the current crisis, and investigates what is being done to reduce its impact. This book contains not only intelligent argument, but moving descriptions of the decline and demise of particular languages, and practical advice for anyone interested in pursuing the subject further.
Download or read book The Cambridge Handbook of Endangered Languages written by Peter K. Austin and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2011-03-24 with total page 581 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Atlas of the world s languages in danger of disappearing written by Wurm, Stephen A. and published by UNESCO. This book was released on 2001-07-17 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Close to half of the 6,000 languges spoken in the world are doomed or likely to disappear in the foreseeable future. The disappearance of any language is an irreparable loss for the heritage of all humankind. This new edition of the Atlas, first published in 1996, is intended to give a graphic picture of the magnitude of the problem and a comprehensive list of languages in danger.
Download or read book Endangered Languages written by Lenore A. Grenoble and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1998-03-26 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides an overview of the issues surrounding language loss. It brings together work by theoretical linguists, field linguists, and non-linguist members of minority communities to provide an integrated view of how language is lost, from sociological and economic as well as from linguistic perspectives. The contributions to the volume fall into four categories. The chapters by Dorian and Grenoble and Whaley provide an overview of language endangerment. Grinevald, England, Jacobs, and Nora and Richard Dauenhauer describe the situation confronting threatened languages from both a linguistic and sociological perspective. The understudied issue of what (beyond a linguistic system) can be lost as a language ceases to be spoken is addressed by Mithun, Hale, Jocks, and Woodbury. In the last section, Kapanga, Myers-Scotton, and Vakhtin consider the linguistic processes which underlie language attrition.
Download or read book Endangered Languages written by Robert Henry Robins and published by Berg Publishers. This book was released on 1991 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: