Endangered Languages of Austronesia

Erscheinungsjahr 2009
ISBN: 978-0-19-954454-7
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 320 Seiten, Format (B × H): 178 mm x 253 mm, Gewicht: 750 g

Austronesian is the largest language family on earth: Some 1300 languages, 20% of the world's total, are spoken by 270 million people in a region that extends from Easter Island in the Pacific 10,000 miles west to Madagascar off the coast of Africa. Many of the languages in this diverse and linguistically rich region are undocumented and in imminent danger of extinction. This book provides a critical account of current knowledge, reviews the state of the documentation of languages in the region, and considers the linguistic effects of government policies and economic change. The editor's introduction draws out the key issues and themes. An overview of the Austronesian language family then examines the historical relations between the languages, their diversity, and their distribution in the region and describes the nature and aims of contemporary research. Individual chapters are then devoted to the revitalization of languages in Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Brunei, East Timor, and Vanuatu.

This pioneering account of one of the world's most linguistically rich regions offers direction and impetus to research in linguistics and anthropology, and holds out the means of saving many endangered languages and cultures.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Florey, Margaret

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Moderne Philosophische Disziplinen Philosophische Anthropologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Sprachwissenschaften

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- Part I Overview

- 1: Margaret Florey: Introduction

- 2: Alexander K. Adelaar: An Overview of Language Documentation in the Austronesian World

- Part II Linguistic Vitality: Theory, Assessments, and Challenges

- 3: Nikolaus P. Himmelmann: Language Endangerment Scenarios: A Case Study From Northern Central Sulawesi

- 4: Charles E. Grimes: Digging for the Roots of Language Death in Eastern Indonesia: The Cases of Kayeli and Hukumina

- 5: I. Wayan Arka: Maintaining Vera in Rongga: Struggles Over Culture, Tradition, and Language in Modern Manggarai-Indonesia

- 6: Thomas N. Headland: Why the Philippine Negrito Languages are Endangered

- part III Capacity Building and Revitalization Initiatives

- 7: Margaret Florey and Nikolaus Himmelmann: New Directions in Field Linguistics: Training Strategies for Language Documentation in Indonesia

- 8: Nick Thieberger: Anxious Respect for Linguistic Data: The Pacific and Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures (PARADISEC) and the Resource Network for Linguistic Diversity (RNLD)

- 9: Hannah Vari-Bogiri: Language Work in Vanuatu

- 10: John Hajek and John Bowden: Waima'a: Challenges for Language Description and Maintenance in East Timor

- 11: Peter Sercombe: Challenges Facing Eastern Penan in Borneo

- Part IV Pedagogical Approaches to Revitalization and Maintenance

- 12: D. Victoria Rau and Meng-Chien Yang: Digital Transmission of Language and Culture: Rethinking Pedagogical Models for e-learning

- 13: Julie Barbour: Language Documentation and Literacy Development: The Neverver Literacy Project

- 14: Catherine Young: First Language Education in Multilingual Contexts

- Index of Subjects

- Index of Place Names

- Index of Languages

Über Autor(innen)

Margaret Florey is an experienced field linguist with endangered languages in eastern Indonesia. She is actively involved in advocacy and international capacity building activities with members of Indigenous communities. Her research interests include the minority languages of the Austronesian and Australian language families, language endangerment, language documentation, and ethnobiology. She has published extensively on the endangered languages of the Austronesian region. Margaret is a consultant linguist with Terralingua and serves on its Board of Governors, is a co-founder of the Resource Network for Linguistic Diversity, and chairs the steering committee for the International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics. Margaret has also contributed as an international expert at the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Section Experts' Meetings on the Convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage.