Language endangerment phenomenon approach

4.3.1. Characterization of the approach

In contrast with the language documentation approach, the language endan-germent phenomenon approach is concerned with the phenomenon of lan-guage endangerment itself, and salvage is not the most important aim of the research.

4.3.2. Negligence of the language endangerment phenomenon

The speech of speakers of an endangered language almost inevitably deviates from the traditional norm of the language. Such speech was once described as atrocious, meagre, inept, barbarous, or the like (cf. Bloomfield 1927: 437).

As seen in Chapters 1 and 3, language endangerment is a very common phe-nomenon, occurring virtually in every part of the world. Until recently, how-ever, researchers working on endangered languages in general have not been concerned with the endangerment phenomenon, e.g. a deviation from the tra-ditional norm, and apparently have not considered this phenomenon as worthy of study in its own right (Dorian 1981: 3, 1989a: 2; Hill 1983: 258; Schmidt 1985b: 1). The major reason for this negligence of the language endangerment phenomenon is no doubt the following. As noted in 4.2, researchers have been mainly attempting to record the "uncontaminated" form of a given endangered language, and have considered deviations from the traditional norm as "corrupt"

and unworthy of study (Dorian 1981: 3; Hill 1983: 258; Schmidt 1985b: 2), and even as a nuisance (Hill and Hill 1977: 55). Schmidt (1985b: 2) lists another reason for this negligence: pressure from within the speech community for the investigator to deal with its most knowledgeable members. (The writer has not experienced this in the fieldwork situation in Australia, pace Schmidt.)

4.3.3. Interest in the language endangerment phenomenon

However, since early 1970s there has been a growing interest in the phenom-enon of language endangerment itself, with the number of works on this is-sue rapidly increasing (Craig 1997: 257; Dorian 1981: 3; Hill 1983: 258). Lan-guage endangerment now constitutes a flourishing field in the discipline of lin-guistics, as attested by the large amount of literature cited in the present work and of those listed in the following website: http://www.tooyoo.Lu-tokyo.ac.jp/

-tsunoda/dlglst.html.

No doubt, the major motivation for this interest is the view that study of these deviations - the very deviations that were the cause of the negligence - will provide a new insight into human language, i.e. the kind of insight that cannot be obtained from the study of "normal languages" (for want of a better term). (See Dorianl989a: 2, 1999a: 99, 2001b: 8358, and Hill and Hill 1977:

55.) This is also one of the main motivations for interest in "non-normal" vari-eties of language such as first language acquisition (or child language acquisi-tion), aphasia, second language acquisition, pidgins, and creóles. The language endangerment phenomenon will be compared with these varieties in 8.4.5.

4.3. Language endangerment phenomenon approach 31

One of the earliest scholars - and possibly the earliest scholar - to com-ment on deviance in an endangered language is Bloomfield (1927: 437-439).

He observed this phenomenon in the speakers of Menomini of Wisconsin, the USA, in terms of phonology, morphology, and lexicon. But he did not carry out a comprehensive study of this phenomenon. As mentioned in 4.3.2, he consid-ered it "atrocious" and "barbarous".

It is possibly Swadesh (1948: 234—235) who first pointed out the value of re-search into language endangerment. He emphasized the importance of gather-ing systematic data, on a wide range of aspects such as the followgather-ing.

(a) Regarding "social obsolescence" of a given language: (i) the number of bilingual and monolingual speakers in terms of sex and age, (ii) the social pres-sures and trends, (iii) the attitudes taken by different individuals and sectors of the community, (iv) current philosophies about the choice of language, (v) cor-relation with social and economic position, (vi) the use of the language(s) in different social settings, (vii) special symbolisms attached to the use of the lan-guage, (viii) autobiographies and individual case studies of speakers.

(b) Regarding "the effect of social obsolescence on the language system":

(ix) vocabulary, (x) morphology, and (xi) phonology.

Miller (1971: 114), who cites Swadesh (1948), provides a list of topics that need to be investigated. His list is very similar to Swadesh', although he uses more explicit - and perhaps more modern - terms such as "language attitude"

and "language loyalty".

Swadesh' and Miller's lists may be paraphrased by the list proposed by Dressier and Wodak-Leodolter (1977a), Dressier (1981: 11-13), and Dressier (1982: 324): (a) historical, (b) political, (c) socioeconomic, (d) socio-cultural, (e) sociological, (f) socio-psychological, (g) sociolinguistic, (h) psycholinguis-tic, and (i) linguistic aspects.

Sasse (1992a: 9 - 1 0 ) divides the relevant aspects into three groups.

(a) External setting. This concerns extra-linguistic factors - cultural, socio-logical, ethnohistorical, economic, political, social, economic factors - which create, in a certain speech community, a situation of pressure which forces the community to give up its language.

(b) Speech behavior. This has to do with sociolinguistic factors, e.g. the use of different languages in a multilingual settings, the use of different styles of one language (Fishman's [1965] famous Who speaks what language to whom and when), domains of languages and styles, and attitudes towards variants of languages.

(c) Structural consequences. These are changes that occur in the language it-self, in its phonology, morphology, syntax and lexicon.

Brenzinger and Dimmendaal (1992) provide a list that is similar to, but sim-pler than, Sasse's.

The proposals cited above are all holistic, paying attention to a wide range of aspects of the language endangerment phenomenon, although the importance of a holistic approach is not always explicitly stated. Sasse (1992a: 9) explicit-ly advocates the need of a holistic approach. A holistic approach is necessary in order to obtain an adequate understanding of any aspect of language (cf. Dix-on 1994: 229), and naturally this applies to the study of the language endanger-ment phenomenon as well.

The present work adopts Sasse's view, and attempts to provide a framework for a holistic account of language endangerment. In particular, the external set-ting of language endangerment will be examined in Chapter 6, the speech be-haviour in Chapter 7, and the structural consequences in Chapter 8.

4.3.4. History of research in the language endangerment phenomenon approach

Since early 1970s there have been a growing number of works on the endan-germent phenomenon. Works from this early period up to about 1980 include those listed below.

(a) Works such as the following deal with the external setting: Swadesh (1948) on various languages; and Dressier and Wodak-Leodolter (1977b) on Breton.

(b) Those listed below deal with just one or two aspects of a given endangered language: Bloomfield (1927) on Menomini; Denison (1977) on Sauris (a Germanic language of Northeast Italy); Dressier (1972, 1981) on Breton; Hill (1973) and Hill and Hill (1977) on Nahuatl of Mexico; Elmendorf (1981) on Wappo and Yuki of California; Knab (1980) on Pochutec of Mexico;

and Voegelin and Voegelin (1977) on Tübatulabal of California.

(c) The following works are reasonably holistic, but they are not detailed:

Austin (1986) on languages of eastern Australia; Kieffer (1977) on Örmuri and Paraci of Afghanistan; and Miller (1971) on Shoshoni of Utah and Nevada, the USA.

As seen above, there was already a fair amount of literature on the endan-germent phenomenon as it occurs in individual languages. However, as Sasse ( 1992a: 9) emphasizes, there was not a truly holistic and detailed work. The first work of this nature is Dorian (1981) on Scottish Gaelic. (In addition, Dorian has published extensively on the language; e.g. Dorian 1973, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1986a, 1986b, 1994a.) It "is the work of Nancy Dorian on East Sutherland