***** G. Cantoni (Ed.) (1996), Stabilizing Indigenous Languages Flagstaff: Center for Excellence in Education, Northern Arizona University
Seven Hypotheses on Language Loss: Causes and Cures (2) James Crawford Copyright © 1996 by James Crawford. All rights reserved.
...1. Language shift is very difficult to impose from without.
We know that languages can die. Can they be "murdered"? I'm sad to say, looking at the Americas since the arrival of Columbus, that the answer is yes. Nevertheless, this crime is more difficult to commit than many believe. The one sure-fire way to murder a language is to murder its speakers. Genocide of language communities occurred with Tainos in the Caribbean, the first peoples to be encountered by Columbus. It has also been the fate of a number of others since that time -- most famously the case of Ishi, the last speaker of Yana, whose tribe was systematically hunted down and killed by California settlers in the late 19th century. Ishi himself survived until 1916, living out his last years in an anthropology museum in San Francisco.
More often, however, languages die in a more complex and gradual way, through the assimilation of their speakers into other cultures. We know lots of the factors involved -- the once-repressive language policies of the Bureau of Indian Affairs are often cited, along with other attempts at cultural genocide, the advent of English-language media, and so on -- but these mechanisms have not been studied extensively. We do know that, in the past, this process has taken quite a long time, often several generations, as a community goes through transitional stages of bilingualism. As I noted, however, the pace of language shift appears to be accelerating dramatically in late 20th century America, which is a major cause for concern.
My first hypothesis is that the external forces that are often blamed, especially direct attempts to suppress a language, cannot alone be responsible, for the simple reason that people resist. Language is the ultimate consensual institution. Displacing a community's vernacular is equivalent to displacing its deepest systems of belief. Even when individuals consent to assimilation, it is enormously difficult to give up one's native language. This is especially true as we grow older, because language is tied so closely to our sense of self: personality, ways of thinking, group identity, religious beliefs, and cultural rituals, formal and informal. Such human qualities are resistant to change at the point of a gun; witness the survival of indigenous tongues through centuries of colonialism....
2. Language shift is determined primarily by internal changes within language communities themselves.
No doubt these changes frequently take place in reaction to external pressures -- or "dislocations," to use Fishman's useful term. Such factors weaken the bonds that hold communities together. Yet ultimately speakers themselves are responsible, through their attitudes and choices, for what happens to their native language. Families choose to speak it in the home and teach it to their children, or they don't. Elders choose to speak the language on certain important occasions or to insist on its use in certain important domains, or they don't. Tribal leaders choose to promote the tribal language and accommodate its speakers in government functions, social services, and community schools, or they don't.
This is not to say that such decisions are made in a vacuum, or that they are entirely deliberate. Language choices are influenced, consciously and unconsciously, by social changes that disrupt the community in numerous ways. These include the range of dislocations Fishman (1991) has cited, such as:
Demographic factors. In- and out-migration disperses a community -- for example, when people have to leave a reservation to attend school or look for jobs. Mobility often leads to intermarriage with other language communities, which in turn means English will likely become the common language of the household. In addition, we should not overlook the forcible dispersion of certain tribes through genocidal campaigns -- for example, in California, a state that also refused to establish reservations for most tribes, which might have provided space for language communities to regroup. It is no coincidence that indigenous tongues in California are among the most endangered in the U.S.A.
Economic forces. Opportunities for employment and commerce tend to be open only to those fully proficient in the dominant language. This is increasingly true when a wage economy starts to replace an agricultural economy and when isolated markets become integrated into a consumer society. It used to be that trading post operators had to be proficient in languages such as Navajo to deal with rural Indians; today it is the Indians who must accommodate to the English-dominated marketplace.
Mass media. Television and video cassette recorders have had a noticeable cultural impact among Native Americans. In more remote areas this has happened only in the last decade. With increased electrification and satellite dishes popping up everywhere, Indian children are suddenly watching MTV, listening to heavy metal, and playing video games -- none of which makes any use of their native language. Perhaps more important, electronic media have displaced traditional pastimes, such as the winter stories through which elders passed down tribal history and culture, with passive forms of entertainment.
Social identifiers. We speak like those we admire or aspire to emulate. Native Americans who desire to succeed in professional careers or who feel an attraction to popular (i.e., Western) culture or non-native religions often come to identify with the language of those pursuits -- English -- and to ascribe low status to native languages. Such tendencies are especially strong among the young, who increasingly identify with non-Indian role models.
These are the kinds of dislocations that occur when barriers fall between the tribal society and the dominant society, when indigenous language communities no longer live in isolation. This has happened earlier on some reservations than on others, but the basic process is pretty much the same. Dan McLaughlin of Navajo Community College put it very well when he said, "You pave roads, you create access to a wage economy, people's values change, and you get language shift" (Crawford, 1995). This brings me to my third hypothesis.
3. If language choices reflect social and cultural values, language shift reflects a change in these values.
Language loss is affected not merely by attitudes about language per se (e.g., whether or not to try to keep the ancestral tongue alive). If such values were all that were involved, saving endangered languages would be a lot simpler. More important in this process are larger systems of belief:
Individualism -- putting self-interest ahead of community interest. Ambitious individuals tend to ask: How is honoring the old ways going to help me "get ahead"? Other people can do what they want, but my family is going to stress English, the language of success in the dominant society.
Pragmatism -- worrying about "what works," not about defending principles that may seem old-fashioned or outmoded. Pragmatists reason that, as indigenous languages decline in power and number of speakers, they are no longer "useful." With English taking their place in more and more domains, they no longer seem worth maintaining.
Materialism -- allowing spiritual, moral, and ethical values to be overshadowed by consumerism. The attitude is that indigenous languages won't put bread on the table, so why worry about preserving them? Teaching them to children is a waste of time, and time is money....
4. If language shift reflects a change in values, so too must efforts to reverse language shift (RLS).
According to Fishman (1991), "successful RLS is invariably part of a larger ethnocultural goal." As examples one might cite the movement for national autonomy in Catalonia or the class struggles of Mayan peasants in Chiapas. In these cases language preservation is not an isolated objective, but a part of broader social changes.....
[The full text of the article is available at <http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/miscpubs/stabilize/ii-policy/hypotheses.htm>.] ***** -- Yoshie
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