Language Maintenance In Melanesia

Language endangerment is a fundamental issue for humanity. What rights do minority communities have concerning their languages? How does each language conceptualize the world differently? How much knowledge about the world and a local ecosystem is lost when a language disappears? What is the process involved and how can insights about this process contribute to linguistic theory? What typological insights will be lost if undescribed languages disappear before their unique structural properties are known? How can language shift be stopped or reversed? This volume comprises: * a general overview introduction * four theoretical chapters on what happens during language shift * ten case studies of autochthonous languages under threat * four case studies of migrant languages at risk * three concluding chapters discussing strategies and resources for language maintenance.

Excerpt from The Melanesian Languages I have endeavoured in the following pages to carry on the work of Bishop Patteson. lie brought to the philological study of the Melanesian languages an extraordinary linguistic faculty,which enabled him to use very many of them with ease, but he left little behind him in print or in manuscript. In the year 1864 ho printed privately some outline grammars or grammatical notes, and in 1866 phrase-books, and Vocabularies of Mahaga, Bauro, and Sesake, which have furnished material for the Melanesischen Sprachen of Von der Gabelentz. In the latter year also phrase-books were printed in some of the languages of the Banks' Islands. I have not taken these as the foundation for my own work. I never had the advantage of studying them with Bishop Patteson, and I know that he considered them imperfect and tentative. It seemed better to work independently on materials obtained directly from natives of Melanesia, and afterwards to compare my conclusions with those of the Bishop where the subjects were the same. Bishop Patteson, therefore, is not answerable for the general views concerning the Melanesian languages here put forward, nor for the structure and arrangement of the Grammars; but I can never forget that I owe any knowledge of these languages that I may possess to the impulse towards the study of them and to the direction which I received from him in the first instance; and I desire to make all that I have been able to do a memorial of gratitude and affection to him. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

""This book explores sociolinguistic analysis and linguistic analysis. It also discusses the acquisition, maintenance, and loss of the indigenous languages and language policies"--Provided by publisher"--

The world’s linguistic map has changed in recent years due to the vast disappearance of indigenous languages. Many factors affect the alteration of languages in various areas of the world including governmental policies, education, and colonization. As indigenous languages continue to be affected by modern influences, there is a need for research on the current state of native linguistics that remain across the globe. Indigenous Language Acquisition, Maintenance, and Loss and Current Language Policies is a collection of innovative research on the diverse policies, influences, and frameworks of indigenous languages in various regions of the world. It discusses the maintenance, attrition, or loss of the indigenous languages; language status in the society; language policies; and the grammatical characteristics of the indigenous language that people maintained and spoke. This book is ideally designed for anthropologists, language professionals, linguists, cultural researchers, geographers, educators, government officials, policymakers, academicians, and students.