Vakhtin, Nikolai B. 2001. Iazyki Narodov Severa v XX Veke: Ocherki Iazykovogo Sdvigaon on Tektiteko (Mexico) low prestige of of native language, connected to low social status of the group it marks, not used for "serious" communication 220 David Crystal 2000 if people think the language of their ancestors/elders will hold them back or be a disadvantage in participation of wider (dominating) society, then they will have a negative attitude towards the langauge and its preservation parents also consider command of English laudatory but skill in Cree unremarkable (Darnell 1971) all of the conditions described above hold for languages of PN many researchers name the main causes: Russian-speaking population mixed village population policies of village consolidation introduction of school instruction in Russian internat fall of traditional activities 221 number of interethnic marriage lack of motivation in studying the language, where it is at least theoretically possible the maintenance of Nenets is connected to the strong preservation of reindeer herding 221 Nivkh children under care of state institutions from the earliest age and thus subject to Russification 222 Kibrik writes the main factor is the social disadvantage that language PN provides for its speakers Hill write that there are no a priori bases 223 that can account for all the various situations in a single process. agrees with Jane Hill summary of main factors: 1. Number of speakers: generally the more the better, but our situation is compounded by the fact that the total number of speakers of one language does not constitute a single speech community, but usually several, speaking different dialects. Breton had over a million speakers not long ago and now very few children speak it. On the other hand, a small number of speakers does not necessarily indicate a shift. Many languages have had very few speakers over many generations, but nonetheless, children continued to learn them. 224 2. Language environment: the more contact a language has with others, the worse its chances of survival. Although there are plenty of examples of multilingual societies, where languages co-exist just fine. 3. Kind of economic activity "If language commonality preserves traditional economic activity, then there is a high probablity 225 that this activity will be carried out in a mono-ethnic group; that, certainly, contributes to language preservation." example of reindeer herding. the specialized lexicon of traditional herders is so well suited to talking about (and doing) herding that it is automatically part of the job on the other hand, getting another kind of job means working in a (Russian) milieu however, traditional activities are abandoned due to ecological, politica, social, economic factors, and these same factors are at work on language shift. also urbanization - moving to cities leads to shift, change in linguistic ecology, although that change also leads to increase concsciousness/value of native id (lang, culture, etc.) 226 4. The production of language interruption of language transmission to children , but even when not, children can end up not using it anyway 5. Interethnic marriages if women are marrying outside their language community, then "their" men are also looking for spouses outside the community this is a common pattern all over the North, although it also implies the mother shifts to husband's language 227 6. State language policies no doubt playing large role in shift many writers mix up two separate phenomema - the spread of a large, dominant language and the disappearance of small, (socialy) weak ones the one does not necessarily imply the latter 7. Prestige the elder generation can hold a language in high esteem and be proud of it, but if youth consider it less prestigious than another language, they will be less likely to use it again this is not an independent variable, but connected to social, economic, political factors 228 8. Lack of writing - factor is often named as one in the list for language shift, but Vakhtin doesn't think it plays a critical role, for example, PN languages with high degree of literacy in the 1960s are not, as a class, better off today than the other PN languages 229 but there are counterexamples for all of these factors 230 PNG groups with linguistic exogamy the question becomes one of language loyalty, why do they not want to speak in the titular language? 230-31 summary of stories of being forceable carried off to internat 232 "language choice" term used in individual choice of which language to use "Here we follow, for the most part, Wolfgan Dressler, who explicitly connects an understanding of langauge death with language shift and the choice of language in multilingual communities." useful to analyze individual choices in aggregate fashion to understand of the phases of langauge shift 233 three criteria at the individual level: personal needs, immediate situation, background situation, which can be reformulated as motiviation of grammatical convenience, motivation of environmental expectations (prestige) and motivation of identity Motivation of grammatical convenience active in multilingual situations, can explain the choice of a second language 234 people choose the dominant language simply because it is the path of least resistance in social participation example from Chilcotin by Clifton Pye 236 Motivation of environmental expectations fashions develop, where speaking a certain language is connected with other social factors, just as clothing fashions develop and change 237 important to remember that innovative people tend to be younger, youth set fashions in culture, as well as in language use and change not everyone values their native language. there are many who want to move to a better (in their view) one ex. from Africa: person's children don't speak Dahalo. they understand, but they speak Swahili. He was proud that they finished school and knows a lot that he doesn't. Can the linguist say that this man is making a mistake? 239 tables showing change in percentage of native pop. in their okrugs for Nenets, Khants, Chukchi, Eskimo when among so many Russian-speakers, expectations will be to be able to speak Russian, and other languages are less relevant for daily life 242 Expectations of "own" and "others" among children a negative attitude toward the titular language by children is a sufficient cause for langauge shift for children, category "own" are their peers, fellow students, "others" are usually teachers and sometimes children of incomers teachers nearly universal in complaining about incapable PN children, psychologically different in capability from newcomer children "It's a fact that PN children differ psychologically, culturally, and behaviorally from children of incomers." the problem is to figure out what's normal and not in a particular individual Ex. Uelen school gave a test in distinguishing colors. Chukchi children distinguished fewer colors than Russians. Chukchi language has only four primary color terms. when native children don't fit into standardized tests, they are judged inadequate instead of different 245 examples of extreme racism by the school director at Uelen 246 such racism provides children with a negative image of self, their heritage, and titular language 247 Motivation of identity language shift associated with changes in identity such motivation is not found as often as the other two 249 Summary: pragmatic motivations are often at work, sometimes environmental and rarely identity these individual choices and motivations are enabled or hindered by social processes at work in the speech community 252 Mechanisms of Language Shift What is happening in a speech community the moment of language shift, how does that shift itself occur? Firstly, children stop speaking in the titutal language, sometimes suddenly. 253 Under the influence of social expectations youth start to actually forget the language and en masse they become so-called "halflanguage" or "forgetters." a generation gap develops between the generation of forgetters and elders speaking the titular language thus there isn't a single speech community any more since there isn't a single shared language 254 the generation on the other side of the gap, born between 1950-65 are those who grew up in a great demographic shift as Russian monolinguals flooded their villages and they were raised in a state-dominated educational system 255 the second inquiry of that process lays in the fact that the middle-aged people begin to become conscious of the process of language loss of titutal language ex. from Nancy Dorian on Scottish: middle generation didn't notice that younger didn't speak the language, only when they had become elders and they were now the only speakers. realization that younger generation didn't speak the language came to them as a shock, for which they were unprepared. the stereotype of the elders as old fashioned, speaking the "old language" and youth as carriers of progressive ideas until it is realized that titular langauge is not spoken by youth. Then the elders are "carriers of tradition" protecting the language, the only ones connecting the people to its roots, history, culture, identity 257 by the end of the 1980s, 90s, people were talking of a deficit of cultural information in their own self-assessment 258 "Elders become valued and respected carriers of tradition, protectors of the old langauge; they view the middle generation - the generation of their children - from a superior position, looking down upon those who have completely forgotten the native language." 259 If the community has strong stereotypes of "stupid, forgotten-all youth" on the one hand and "know-everything elders, preservers of tradition" on the other hand, then these preconceptions will go a long way in expert judgements of language ability at first language loss goes slowly, and then sharply increases, and then flattens out again as some knowledge is preserved a while longer over time, not a steady rate of loss of speakers over time 260 the third inquiry of this process is in the influence I call "regressive restoration of language" dying languages take a long time to die. It seems that there is always a handful of speakers who remember the native language, speak in it with one another and can serve as linguistic informants 261 at a certain age, a person begins to think of themself as a carrier of tradition, even when they considered themselves that way before, or worried about such things 262 Campbell decalres all California and most other NA languages dead as soon as current elders leave the scene because no children are learning the language as their first language. this neglects to take into consideration that the middle generation can (and sometimes does) learn the language "from the grandmothers" this generation has a passive ability in the language, and this can be activated with some effort 263 Why is language so resistant? 264-65 Yukagir has been dying out for 100 years, according to a parade of scholars over the course of the xx c. 265 Commander Isl. Aleut has been dying out for 150 years 267 Margaritov 1899 writes about Itelmens as already having lost their culture 268 scholars have been writing about the assimilation and linguistic, cultural, social, and physical demise of PN for a century or more "One shouldn't simply ignore this paradox; it's not just a mistake on the part of scholars." 269-70 example Craig 1992 in Nicaragua, same pattern as PN langs, but refuses to die adults are learning the language, continuing to speak it in a limited manner 271 these "few old women" who are the last speakers of a language can be found all over the world, and they seem to be replaced after they die 272-73 example of Suba (S. Kenya) and Luo 275 "In no case do I want to be misunderstood. Yes, of course, there is hope in the documentation of examples of disappearing languages. Yes, of course, there are elements of cultures and entire cultures, which are being wiped off the face of the earth. I have personally encountered, as have all field workers, situations where languages were being extinguished before my very eyes. When in the beginning of the 1970s I first arrived in Chukotka, the youngest informant (native speakers of Eskimo) was about 30 years old. Today the yongest speaker of that language is over 50." situation repeats itself all over north "So what is the solution to the paradox whereby languages and cultures, described as by linguists and ethnographers as dying 20, 50, 100 years ago are still alive?" "Apparently, the explanation of this phenomenon lies in an intersection of several pragmatic, socio-psychological, and semiotic factors." mistakes on part of researchers in assessing current situation and underestimating the capacity of local people to preserve the language, pass it on, and their interest in the language social-psychological includes the interaction among generations, especially the elder two, transfer of language between them has a non-linear character to it. semiotic refers to "the influences and conections with the instability and mobility of the understanging "our language" among speakers." 276 section on researchers underestimating conscious activities to preserve the language section on researchers understate the level of language preservation follows Susan Gal (1989) on the European trope of disappearing languages and cultures-- based on a static understanding of tradition--looking for the archaic, unchanged, ancient culture elements. they interpret changes as distortions (corruptions), loss of authenticity 277 ___________ = authenticity this ideology of change=loss is often found among locals, so middle-aged informants will say they have "forgotten" the language but in a few years when these people are the elders, they appear to have a good command of it 279 valuation of linguistic competence and reputation as "preserver of the language" by the community is full of politics which are not always related to a strictly linguistic competence of the language in question from the researcher's point of view this also plays a role in a chain of "last speakers of the language" the title of which can pass from one person to another. "last best speaker" may be more accurate. 281 Consequences of Language Shift emphasizes that one cannot rigorously distinguish between conditions, mechanisms, and consequences of language shift. These intellectual/analytic constructs are connected to social processes which are too interconnected for simple delineation 282 "Consequences" as described in this book of processes may become, thus, after a certain period of transformation among langauges of PN, yet to be determined "conditions" in the future for further changes and processes." "It seems to me that studying the current language situation in the North provides a base ... identify and cultivate signs of counter-proceses, to see possibilities in to develope a situation different from a simple disappearance of langauges of PN." "Everywhere we witness once and same picture: youth stop speaking in the titual language, take up a new model of life from incomers, move to the city, marry those from other nationalities." But such gross generalizations miss local complexities. "The process of language shift is never smooth, with the exception of very small, very homogenous demographically, and a compactly-living group." the level of analysis is the language community, and not nations (narod) 283 for example, can one talk about the disappearance of Evenk when one of its dialects (Arman) is no longer spoken, but another (Berezovskii) is still in good shape? 284 analogue with Inuit in Canada, where the language has prestige among Inuit and non-Inuit, now an important symbol of identity 285 language revival is always a possibility, even for the exceptionally endangered language ex. Itelmen, interesting in that Itelmens are not interested in a general Itelmen identity so much as a localized one. Khaloimova and Kasten's textbook was done in two dialects 286 even though the linguistic differences between these two dialects is minimal, truly the same language M.N. Tarasova teaching Even in Bystrinskii raion of Kamchatka found that using the official textbooks, her parents couldn't understand what she was teaching the children 290 language and culture are always changing, and sudden changes can seem like losses to conservatively-inclined participants "Linguistis, and especially ethnographers, describing situations of intensive linguistic and cultural contact often confuse two things: language (cultural) death and language (cultural) transformation." language death is a problematic phrase and metaphor at best, since "life" and "death" of languages and sociocultural systems doesn't really make sense in concrete terms 290-92 ex. with Louisiana Cajun for language and identity 292 "In order to consider oneself Cajun, it is necessary, from the point of view of the younger generation, to be able to use at least some form of Cajun-French, although not necessarily in that form which was spoken earlier." 293 "Selfidentification and determining what exactly is real Cajun are closely intertwined." the number of people identifying themselves as Chukchi, Koryak, Tofalar, Nanai, etc. increases between every census. "For the younger generations titual language is arely not absolutely required as a marker of their ethnicity, and concurrently those languages themselves are gradually becoming more prestigious: speaking in them or at least being abe to participate in some sort of communication in them, signals a reinforcement of preference towards "tradition," supporting their own status, strengthening their own rights, above all economic and political rights for land and rights to live on the territory." 294 Chuvantsi were a Yukagir tribe, but were embedded in a larger, multilingual region in the 18th and 19th centuries (including Penzhina and Slautnoe) whcih could be considered as a single culture in a sense. 295 Markovo was a center of Chuvants language, but according to Maidel 1894, it had disappeared in the 19th century already in 1996 a woman told Vakhtin that everyone, including children, speaks Chuvantsi Markovskii govor very little documentation 296 agreement that Russian came from north (Olon, Archangelsk, Novgorod, Pskov) 297 people talk about Markovski language, how it is different and others can't understand it 298 the thing is that it doesn't exist as a means of communication. there is no Markovskii govor from an external point of view certainly there was such a dialect in history, but now it is only a few words and phonetic characteristics in people's memories which they imagine as an entirely different way of speaking from standard Russian 301 Evidently a written word list makes the rounds of the village. a school teacher was very proud to show Vakhtin such a list 302 "Markovskii govor doubtlessly is connected to that which Irzhi Smolicz called 'core values of culture', which 'play a role of identifying values, symbols of the group and membership in it (1992: 279)." Functions of Markovskii govor not a means of communication, but a symbol of community identity marks us and ours analogous example from Mombasa, Kenya 304 language can survive with reduced or different functions "For example, a language can partly lose its function of control of reality, that is to say, stop being used as a language of shamanic and religious ritual, but at the same time it can continue all ofther functions. ... Or imagine that a language lost its function of identity and became a lingua franca. ... the language lost one of its functions. It doesn't mean that it's dead." however it seems that we privilege the communicative function of language, incorrectly so 305 Lotman believes that communication is far away from the most important function. Natural language is actually not very good for communication in an efficient, unambiguous manner. Artificial languages are much better suited for that. "According to Lotman, two other, much more important functions of language are its artistic function (langauge and text in the language as a generator of new ideas) and the function of memory (language and text in the language as memory about past contexts)." for us it is not important to say what is the most important function, but it is important that the loss of the communicative function, when the language is no longer used as a means of socializing, it does not automatically mean the loss of the language itself. a language which only fulfills the function of social or ethnic identity may be greatly reduced - simplified in phonetics, lexicon, and grammar, but it still exists, is used 308 Conclusion "Thus, present-day Chukotka is experiencing a process of formation of new ethnic groups, which are distinct from previous ones; there have appeared, for example, Sireniki Eskimo and Chaplino Eskimo groups, making a completely different, sharper distinction that that which existed at the beginning of the 20th century (Krupnik 1983)." same with Itelmen "Without a doubt, language is a very important symbol and means of supporting identity, but it is not the only means." 309 in short, people use whatever is at hand to demarcate identity in any manner of different ways 310 bring up one last point: why is that these languages have persisted despite a century of more or less oppressive conditions? Dixon's model of intermittent equilibrium, which may be better for understanding historical change than models of genetic trees or models of areal diffusion, and which incorporates both those models as aspects of intermittent equilibrium 311 relative stability is punctuated by sudden changes do to social conditions such as migration, war, etc. the current lingusitic situation is one of sudden change, but on of unique or last 312 transition in the development of human language - the great disappearance of linguistic variability (according to Dixon) but this seems to be another example of the "end of history" motif so popular these days the biggest difference between the end of the 20th century and earlier epochs is the lack of usefulness of "geographical area" as an analytic concept with the recent developmenst in communication and transport infrastructure "I can't accept the idea that this period is the last [for anything]." 313 Trubetskoi 1995 [1923]: abolishing national [ethnic] diversity will kill the "social organism" a total erasure of diversity is humanly impossible even the most totalitarian meatgrinders haven't been able to erase diversity, even when that was a top priority 314 the rise in indigenous activism and educational initiatives for children who are native speakers of Russian is a good sign for the maintenance of diversity maybe the particular paths are not the best, but if people are doing something because they can't do nothing, then we have an answer to the question when people do something because they can't not do it (such as walk on the ground), then we are approaching something that looks like a law of nature 32