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Language vitality: Theorizing language loss, shift, and reclamation (Response to Mufwene)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2026

Claire Bowern
Claire Bowern*
Affiliation:
Yale University and Endangered Language Fund
*
Department of Linguistics, Dow Hall, 370 Temple St., New Haven, CT 06511 [claire.bowern@yale.edu]
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Abstract

Salikoko Mufwene's (2017) ‘Language vitality’ ranges across many topics related to language endangerment and loss (LEL). In this response, I agree that linguists do need a theory of the reasons LEL occurs, if we are to be effective in aiding communities with language maintenance and revitalization. I argue that there IS an existing, important literature on language loss and language revitalization and reclamation. Finally, I argue that there is good reason to believe that indigenous minority language endangerment is worth considering as a distinct category of LEL.

Keywords

language endangermentethnographic fieldworklanguage maintenanceNative American languagesAustralian Aboriginal languageslanguage shift

Information

Type
Perspectives
Information
Language , Volume 93 , Issue 4 , December 2017, pp. e243 - e253
Copyright
Copyright © 2019 Linguistic Society of America

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