Thomason Endangered Languages

An Introduction
Erscheinungsjahr 2015
ISBN: 978-1-316-30816-5
Verlag: Cambridge University Press
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 0 Seiten

Reihe: Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics

Most of the 7,000 languages spoken in the world today will vanish before the end of this century, taking with them cultural traditions from all over the world, as well as linguistic structures that would have improved our understanding of the universality and variability of human language. This book is an accessible introduction to the topic of language endangerment, answering questions such as: what is it? How and why does it happen? Why should we care? The book outlines the various causes of language endangerment, explaining what makes a language 'safe', and highlighting the danger signs that threaten a minority language. Readers will learn about the consequences of losing a language, both for its former speech community and for our understanding of human language. Illustrated with case studies, it describes the various methods of documenting endangered languages, and shows how they can be revitalised.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Thomason, Sarah G.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Sprachwissenschaften
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Introduction; 2. Why and how languages become endangered; 3. Sliding into dormancy: social processes and linguistic effects; 4. What a community loses: language loss as cultural loss; 5. What science loses: language loss as a threat to our understanding of human history, human cognition, and the natural world; 6. Field research on endangered languages; 7. Language preservation and revitalization.

Über Autor(innen)

Thomason, Sarah G.
Sarah G. Thomason is William J. Gedney Collegiate Professor of Linguistics in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Michigan. Her previous publications include Language Contact: An Introduction (2001).