Language Endangerment and Revitalization
“A language is a dialect with an army and navy.” — Max Weinreich, Yiddish linguist
“Bilingualism is a universal phenomenon. There’s nothing unnatural to it, as long as there’s no politics in it.” — Pau Todó, Catalan linguist
Language undoubtedly varies from one place — whether it be country, state, or even town — to the next, but the circumstances that cause languages to die often transcend borders. As students of linguistics, we must pay close attention to the distinct perspective that each dialect offers in order to enhance linguistic diversity and ensure that endangered languages survive. With a language disappearing every two weeks, understanding the conditions that threaten its survival is vital to preserving its cultural wisdom.
While many languages become endangered as a result of political repression, displacement, and monolingual education, misinformation is also a contributor. Various Chinese languages are referred to as “Chinese dialects” of Mandarin to deter people from speaking them. Take, for example, Hokkien, a language from the Fujian province of Southeastern China that has faced deliberate erasure since the early 20th century. Sim Tze Wei, Tag linguist and founder of the Speak Hokkien Campaign, has seen how misinterpreted translations can be particularly treacherous. “One of the main reasons Hokkien and other regional languages are referred to as ‘dialects’ today is because of a misappropriation of the term 方言 (fāngyán) when Western linguistic science was imported into China in the 1920s,” he tells us. Though the two characters historically meant “a language of a particular region,” nationalists across the region upheld the literal interpretation of the term as “dialect” to undermine Hokkien’s linguistic and cultural status. Linguists generally view two speakers who are mutually unintelligible to one another as speaking two distinct languages, yet the designation of “language” as opposed to “dialect” often has more to do with political ideology and power than linguistics. To put this into perspective, English and German are 10% more similar than Hokkien and Mandarin.
“Referring to these languages as ‘dialects’ gives the governing elite an excuse to promote a single identity, which provides them with a basis to rule over a larger population,” Tze Wei tells us. While attempts to silence Hokkien and other “dialects” across history are extensive, common initiatives included prohibiting its instruction in schools and banning it on television. “Imagine any government of Europe labeling French, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian dialects of the Spanish language and banning them to ensure that everyone spoke Spanish,” Tze Wei said at a recent conference. “Think of the culture that would be lost through such an act.”
The tipping point of this cultural loss is considered language death, which occurs when the last native speaker of a language or dialect passes away. With elders’ deaths resulting in a language’s disappearance, activists are looking to intergenerational communication for solutions. “From a young age, children should learn that their mother tongue is valuable,” says Chonita Pablo Lacan, an educator from Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala. Her multi-hyphenate lifestyle as an elementary school teacher, the Director of Social Programs at a local nonprofit, and an embroiderer will likely sound familiar to many linguists. Chonita’s mother tongue is Tz’utujil — an endangered language that is spoken by about 60,000 Maya in Guatemala’s Sololá department. Today, Tz’utujil is predominantly maintained orally among older generations, who struggle to communicate with their grandchildren immersed in Spanish-only schooling and media; additionally, the 24% of students who surpass the sixth grade are often drawn away from the rural region. Although local radio stations have built a robust auditory archive of Guatemala’s 22 Maya languages, Chonita believes literacy is key for Tz’utujil’s future. “Our challenge today is to write in our language,” she says, “And reading can teach adults to love their own language and improve their literacy.”
Where might we look for a revived mother tongue within a multilingual nation? A long and short answer to such a massive question is Catalonia. “People study, watch TV, and pay their taxes in Catalan,” says Pau Todó, a Tag linguist and Creative Director at the Zurich-based Jam’on agency. The fact that Pau can call Catalan a “normal language” is a feat. During Francisco Franco’s dictatorship, Catalan was repressed for 40 years, to the point where children could not have Catalan names. Pau thinks that Catalonian nationalism was paradoxically key to Catalan’s resilience, in spite of the detrimental effect nationalism has had upon many endangered languages, like Hokkien. “The invention of foundational myths and symbols effectively created a new shared concept of national identity and a general idea of belonging,” he notes, recalling the cartoon posters of the character Norma, who was created to humanize the language to Catalan children growing up in the ’80s. Reinstating Catalan as an official school language and creating a public TV and radio network has definitely helped, but many believe that ensuring Catalan’s survival must be actively considered. As recently as November 14th, a new Spanish law ruled that Castilian Spanish will no longer be a required language in schools — a victory for many Catalan activists concerned that, as of 2019, 52.7% of Catalonia’s population recognized Castilian Spanish as their mother tongue as opposed to Catalan’s 31.5%.
Fara Gonzales, another Tag linguist who works in Catalan and Spanish, grew up with a Catalan mother but was formally educated in Castilian. “I prefer to write in Castilian Spanish because I studied only Spanish until I was nine years old,” she says. “No one who studies in Catalan does not also speak Spanish fluently when they finish their studies, but, in the reverse situation, they don’t master Catalan.” Fara is also a filmmaker who believes that creating art in mother tongues is key to their survival. “If we don’t protect Catalan, it will not be able to survive, because Spanish dominates the media and is infinitely more omnipresent,” she says.
So, how can we support endangered languages? Tze Wei, our resident language revitalization expert, believes both grassroot endeavors and top-down political action are needed. “Changing the narrative is a prerequisite for changing policy,” he says. “It is when policymakers start to reflect on their own ideologies and take action to undo the systems that drive these languages to extinction that languages will have a chance to survive.”
On an individual level, we suggest checking out the UNESCO Atlas of World Languages to find local initiatives you can support. And, of course, getting in touch with your mother tongue roots.
