Keeping Languages Alive

Explores current efforts to record, collect and archive endangered languages which are in danger of falling silent.

Mari C. Jones is Reader in French Linguistics and Language Change at the University of Cambridge and Fellow in Modern and Medieval Languages at Peterhouse, Cambridge. A highly experienced fieldworker, she has published extensively on language obsolescence and revitalisation in relation to Insular and Continental Norman, Welsh and Breton. Her publications include Language Obsolescence and Revitalization (1998), Jersey Norman French (2001) and The Guernsey Norman French Translations of Thomas Martin (2008).

Part I. Documentation: 1. Language documentation and meta-documentation Peter K. Austin; 2. A psycholinguistic assessment of language change in Eastern Indonesia: evidence from the HALA Project Amanda Hamilton, Jawee Perla and Laura Robinson; 3. Documentation for endangered sign languages: the case of Mardin sign language Ulrike Zeshan and Hasan Dikyuva; 4. Re-imagining documentary linguistics as a revitalisation-driven practice David Nathan and Meili Fang; 5. Language documentation and community interests John Henderson; 6. American Indian sign language documentary linguistic fieldwork and digital archive Jeffrey Davis; 7. Purism in language documentation and description Michael Riessler and Elena Karvovskaya; 8. Greek-speaking enclaves in Pontus today: the documentation and revitalisation of Romeyka Ioanna Sitaridou; Part II. Pedagogy: 9. New technologies and pedagogy in language revitalisation: the case of Te Reo M-ori in Aotearoa/New Zealand Tania Ka'ai, John Moorfield and Muiris Ó Laoire; 10. Teaching an endangered language in virtual reality Hanna Outakosko; 11. A nomadic school in Siberia among Evenk reindeer herders Alexandra Lavrillier; 12. Task-based language teaching practices that support Salish language revitalisation Arieh Sherris, Tachini Pete, Lynn Thompson and Erin Haynes; Part IV. Revitalisation: 13. Speakers and language revitalisation: a case study of Guernesiais (Guernsey) Julia Sallabank and Yan Marquis; 14. On the revitalisation of a 'treasure language': the Rama language project of Nicaragua Colette Grinevald and Bénédicte Pivot; 15. Whistled languages: including Greek in the continuum of endangerment situations and revitalisation strategies Maria Kouneli, Julien Meyer and Andrew Nevins; 16. What is revitalisation really about? Competing language revitalisation movements in Provence James Costa and Médéric Gasquet-Cyrus; Bibliography; Index.