 Foundation for Endangered Languages
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To get an idea of where the action is in endangered languages, I would
recommend five books, the first three relatively easy to find, the last
two more difficult.
They are: R.M.W. Dixon. The rise and fall of languages. Cambridge University Press 1997. Jonathan Bobaljik, Rob Pensalfini and Luciana Storto eds. Papers on Language Endangerment and the Maintenance of Linguistic Diversity, MIT Working Papers in Linguistics vol. 28 (1996) Lenore Grenoble and Lindsay Whaley eds. Endangered Languages. Cambridge Univ. Press 1998. R.H. Robins and E.M. Uhlenbeck eds. Endangered Languages. Oxford: Berg 1991.
Kazuto Matsumura ed., Studies in Endangered Languages. Tokyo: Hituzi
Syobo 1998.
The last four of these are collections of papers, but almost all of the papers are excellent. The first two will give you an idea why languages have come to be endangered, |
and some reasons why the loss to all of us is serious.
It
has rather a bias towards languages of the Americas.
The second gives a
lot of interesting case studies, and contains an excellent bibliography
on the subject.
The third gives overviews of particular regions, and
will fill you in on the endangered-language situation in the areas of
the world. As for the fifth, I attach my review of Matsumura ed.
More recently, there has also been a book about Linguistic Diversity:
"Linguistic Diversity" This emphasizes the functional role of linguistic diversity in humanity, and gives a theory to explain, e.g., the amazing fact that the map of language density in the world is the same as the map of species diversity: i.e. where there are more species per unit of area, there will be more languages too. And in July 2000 Cambridge University Press is bringing out a general introduction to the field and its issues: "Language Death", by David Crystal. | |
