These fifteen essays, which originated as talks at the 2006 Georgetown University Round Table (GURT), are organized into three “complementary strands” – defining, documenting, and developing – that provide a balanced view of the recent study of endangered and minority languages. The defining strand addresses what it means for a language to be endangered. In chapter 1, Suzanne Romaine analogizes linguistic diversity to biodiversity, claiming that endangerment and extinction occur similarly in linguistic and other ecologies. Wesley Leonard, in chapter 2, discusses the notion of a “sleeping” (as opposed to “extinct”) language, exemplifying the idea with the languages of the Miami-Peoria indigenous peoples of North America. In chapter 3, Paul Lewis outlines a comprehensive classification system for “evaluating endangerment” (p. 36), which he proposes can serve as a unifying system through which researchers describe and define endangered languages.
In documenting, Gregory Guy & Ana Zilles (chapter 4) examine plural marking to illustrate how vernacular Brazilian Portuguese is becoming homogenized across what has been one of the most linguistically diverse regions in the world. Christine Mallinson, in chapter 5, uses integrationist social theory to show how speakers in rural North Carolina construct complex racial identities. Emily McEwan-Fujita (chapter 6) likewise uses an ethnographic approach to investigate an emerging professional register of Scottish Gaelic. Finally, in chapter 7, Nancy Hornberger reexamines her two-decades-old study of “biliteracy” in Ecuadorian Quechua through the lens of Bakhtinian notions of voice.
The last strand, developing, portrays real-life examples of language revitalization efforts worldwide. In Ireland, Tadhg Ó hIfearnáin (chapter 8) documents both the increase in number of public policies aimed at standardizing the Irish language and, ironically, the concurrent decrease in native speakers of longstanding Irish dialects. Leena Huss in chapter 9 contrasts the different interpretations Norway and Sweden have of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, and how each has affected its own minority languages. Paul Fallon (chapter 10) uses Wolff’s (2000) outline of “determination”, “codification”, “elaboration”, “implementation”, and “cultivation” to describe the current status of the Blin language in Eritrea. Chapter 11 authors McCarty, Romer-Little, & Zepeda and chapter 12 authors Peyton, Carreira, Wang, & Wiley analyze the North American linguistic landscape in terms of revitalization efforts that have met with mixed success – the former in the case of Navajo in Arizona, and the latter in the more general case of heritage language teaching in the United States. Walt Wolfram, in chapter 13, shows how popular media, public school curricula, and outreach programs have challenged language ideologies and have educated the public at large about linguistic diversity.
The final two chapters augment the first thirteen by providing potent examples of the costs of linguistic revitalization. Elana Shohamy, in chapter 14, shows how the success of Hebrew in Israel was not achieved without coercion and threats to human rights. And finally, in chapter 15, William Labov describes a flourishing minority dialect in the United States – African American Vernacular English – that has experienced vitality only as a consequence of racial segregation.
