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Local reactions to perceived language decline

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2026

Lucille J. Watahomigie and
Akira Y. Yamamoto
Lucille J. Watahomigie*
Affiliation:
Peach Springs, Arizona
Akira Y. Yamamoto*
Affiliation:
University of Kansas
*
Lucille J. Watahomigie, Peach Springs School District No.8, P.O. Box 138, Peach Springs, AZ 86434
Akira Y. Yamamoto, Department of Anthropology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045
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Extract

In schools, from kindergarten through high school, the language of instruction was English. When students who had been taught in English left school, they were speaking English. When they married, they spoke English to their children. ‘Indians’ no longer spoke their native languages as their primary means of communication.

This was the perceived state of affairs in relation to the Hualapai language in the mid 1970s. Many members of the community thought that English was taking over their ancestral language and that their traditions were about to disappear. In response to this threat of rapid language decline, a long and tedious process of forming a community language team began, with the Hualapai Bilingual/Bicultural Program as its central force.

Information

Type
Endangered Languages
Information
Language , Volume 68 , Issue 1 , March 1992, pp. 10 - 17
Copyright
Copyright © 1992 Linguistic Society of America

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Footnotes

*

We wish to thank all the members of the Hualapai Language Team for their enthusiasm in discussing the content of this paper when we were preparing a draft. We also benefitted a great deal from our work with generations of the AILDI participants, especially with Ofelia Zepeda and Teresa McCarty, Co-Directors of the recent AILDIs at the University of Arizona. We also want to acknowledge the constant support and encouragement from the linguistics community, especially Ken Hale and Margaret Langdon. Without this support, our work with Native American communities would not have reached such a healthy state.