Language revival is the revival, by governments, political authorities, or enthusiasts, to recover the spoken use of a language that is no longer spoken or is endangered. Language death is the process by which a language ceases to be used by the people who formerly spoke it. Language revival seeks to bring back a language that is dead or endangered. This does not cite its references or sources. ...

Perhaps the most celebrated example of successful language revival is the Hebrew language, which now exists as a living tongue in daily use in the state of Israel. Other official attempts to revive endangered languages, such as the promotion of the Irish language in the Republic of Ireland (see Gaelic Revival), have met with less success. Some other endangered languages that have been the subject of revivalist campaigns by enthusiasts or governments include: “Hebrew” redirects here. ... Irish () is a Goidelic language spoken in Ireland. ... The Gaelic Revival of the Irish language was mainly promoted by the Gaelic League and Douglas Hyde for much of the late 19th century and early 20th century. ...

• Ainu
• Belarusian
• Breton
• Basque
• Catalan
• Cocama, revival efforts in Peruvian Amazonia
• Comanche
• Coptic
• Cornish
• Faroese
• Frisian
• Galician
• Greek Katharevousa, a partial revival of Ancient Greek
• Gaelic
• Hakka
• Latin
• Manx
• Maori
• Old Norwegian
• Provençal
• Sanskrit
• Lowland Scots
• Scottish Gaelic
• Taiwanese
• Tlingit
• Welsh
• Yiddish

Often the organization reviving the language chooses a particular dialect, even standardizes one from several variants, and adds new forms, mainly modern vocabulary, through neologisms, extensions of meaning for old words, calques from sibling languages (Arabic for Modern Hebrew, Welsh for Manx), or plain borrowings from the modern international languages. Supporters of other variants can feel that the chosen form is not "the real one", and that the original purpose of the revival has been defeated. The Ainu language (Ainu: , aynu itak; Japanese: ainu-go) is spoken by the Ainu ethnic group on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaidō. It was once spoken in the Kurile Islands, the northern part of HonshÅ«, and the southern half of Sakhalin. ... Breton (Breton: Brezhoneg) is a Celtic language spoken by some of the inhabitants of Brittany (Breizh) and Loire-Atlantique (historically part of Brittany) in France. ... Basque (native name: Euskara) is the language spoken by the Basque people who inhabit the Pyrenees in North-Central Spain and the adjoining region of South-Western France. ... Catalan IPA: (català IPA: or []) is a Romance language, the national language of Andorra, and a co-official language in the autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Land of Valencia (under the name of Valencian) and the Balearic Islands in Spain, and in the city of LAlguer in the Italian... Cocoma (also spelled Cocama) is a language which is spoken by the demographically and historically dominant indigenous peoples of the northeastern region Peruvian Amazonia: the lower Ucayali, lower Marañon and lower Huallaga rivers basins. ... A river in the Amazon rainforest The Amazon is a rainforest in South America. ... The Comanche language is a member of the Numic branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family. ... Coptic is the most recent phase of ancient Egyptian. ... This does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Frisian is a Germanic group of closely related languages, spoken by about half a million members of Frisian ethnic groups living on the southern fringes of the North Sea in the Netherlands and Germany. ... Galician (Galician: galego, IPA: ) is a language of the Western Ibero-Romance branch, spoken in Galicia, an autonomous community with the constitutional status of historic nationality, located in northwestern Spain and small bordering zones in neighbouring autonomous communities of Asturias and Castilla y León. ... Katharevousa (Greek Καθαρεύουσα, IPA: ) is a form of the Greek language, created during the early 19th century by Adamantios Korais (1748-1833). ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... Gaelic as an adjective means pertaining to the Gaels, whether to their language or their culture. ... Henan, Shanxi, Guangdong, Jiangxi and Fujian provinces The Hakka are a subgroup of the Han Chinese people who live predominantly in the provinces of Guangdong, Jiangxi, and Fujian in China. ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ... Māori (or Maori) is a language spoken by the native peoples of New Zealand and the Cook Islands. ... West Norse is also called Old Icelandic or Old Norwegian. ... Provençal (Prouvençau in Provençal language) is one of several dialects of the Romance language Occitan, which is spoken by a minority of people in southern France and other areas of France. ... Attempts at reviving the Sanskrit language have been undertaken in the Republic of India since its foundation in 1947 (when Sanskrit was declared one of 21 official languages). ... Scots refers to the Anglic varieties spoken in parts of Scotland. ... // Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig) is a member of the Goidelic branch of Celtic languages. ... Taiwanese (pe̍h-oÄ“-jÄ«: Tâi-oân-oÄ“ or Tâi-gí; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: TáiyÇ”, Táiwānhuà) is a dialect of Min Nan Chinese spoken by about 70% of Taiwans population. ... The Tlingit language (Eng. ... Welsh redirects here, and this article describes the Welsh language. ... Yiddish (Yid. ... Language planning refers to deliberate efforts to influence the behaviour of others with respect to the acquisition, structure, or functional allocation of language. ... A neologism (Greek νεολογισμός [neologismos], from νέος [neos] new + λόγος [logos] word, speech, discourse + suffix -ισμός [-ismos] -ism) is a word, term, or phrase which has been recently created (coined) — often to apply to new concepts, to synthesize pre-existing concepts, or to make older terminology sound more contemporary. ... // In linguistics, a calque (pronounced ) or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word (Latin: verbum pro verbo) or root-for-root translation. ...

Europe

In Europe, in the 19th and early 20th century, the use of both local and learned languages declined as the central governments of the different states imposed their vernacular language as the standard throughout education and official use (this was the case in France and Italy). Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999...

In the last few decades, local nationalism and human rights movements have made a more multicultural policy standard in European states. Campaigns have raised the profiles of local languages to such an extent that in some European regions, the local languages have acquired the status of official languages, along with the national language. The Council of Europe's action in this area (see European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages) is in contrast to the European Union's granting of official status to a restricted number of official languages (see Languages of the European Union). Eugène Delacroixs Liberty Leading the People, symbolising French nationalism during the July Revolution. ... Human rights are rights which some hold to be inalienable and belonging to all humans. ... Multiculturalism is a philosophy that is sometimes construed as ideology advocating that modern society should at least embrace and include distinct cultural groups with equal cultural and political status. ... An official language is a language that is given a privileged legal status in a state, or other legally-defined territory. ... Council of Europe Flag: used by the Council of Europe The Council of Europe () is an international organization of 46 member states in the European region (with Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey, Georgia and Cyprus also extending into Southwest Asia and Russia into North Asia). ... // The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML) is a European treaty (CETS 148) adopted in 1992 under the auspices of the Council of Europe to protect and promote historical regional and minority languages in Europe. ... Chameleon, a symbol of the multilingualism of the European Union. ...

On the other end of the spectrum, Latin, the learned language in which higher education and academic communication was carried out in Europe for many centuries, thus providing a cultural link to the continent across all of her universities until the aforementioned period, has also been the object of a language revival movement and is precariously growing in number of speakers (cf. Living Latin), although, as a language which is native to no people, this movement hasn't received support from any governments, national or supranational. Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ... The expression Living Latin refers to the living use of Latin, a classical language that has often being classified as dead. There are two main proponents of Living Latin. ...

Worldwide

In recent times only, more than 750 languages have already become extinct around the world. Still others have only a few known speakers; these languages are called endangered languages. An extinct language (also called a dead language) is a language which no longer has any native speakers. ... An endangered language is a language with so few surviving speakers that it is in danger of falling out of use. ...

The UN estimates that more than half of the languages spoken today have fewer than 10,000 speakers and that a quarter have fewer than 1,000 speakers and that, unless there are some efforts to maintain them, over the next hundred years most of these will become extinct.

The Endangered Language Fund is a fund dedicated to the preservation and revival of endangered languages.

Reversing language shift

Reversing language shift has been an area of study among sociolinguists, including Joshua Fishman, in recent decades. Reversing language shift involves establishing the degree to which a particular language has been 'dislocated' in order to determine the best way to assist or revive the language. Language shift is the process whereby an entire speech community of a language shifts to speaking another language. ... Professor Joshua Aaron Fishman is an American social scientist and linguist at Stanford University. ...

Steps in reversing language shift

Joshua Fishman's model for reviving threatened (or dead) languages, or for making them sustainable, consists of an eight-stage process. Efforts should be concentrated on the earlier stages of restoration until they have been consolidated before proceeding to the later stages. The eight stages are as follows: Professor Joshua Aaron Fishman is an American social scientist and linguist at Stanford University. ...

1. Acquisition of the language by adults, who in effect act as language apprentices (recommended where most of the remaining speakers of the language are elderly and socially isolated from other speakers of the language).
2. Create a socially integrated population of active speakers (or users) of the language (at this stage it is usually best to concentrate mainly on the spoken language rather than the written language).
3. In localities where there are a reasonable number of people habitually using the language, encourage the informal use of the language among people of all age groups and within families and bolster its daily use through the establishment of local neighbourhood institutions in which the language is encouraged, protected and (in certain contexts at least) used exclusively.
4. In areas where oral competence in the language has been achieved in all age groups encourage literacy in the language but in a way that does not depend upon assistance from (or goodwill of) the state education system.
5. Where the state permits it, and where numbers warrant, encourage the use of the language in lieu of compulsory state education.
6. Where the above stages have been achieved and consolidated, encourage the use of the language in the workplace (lower worksphere).
7. Where the above stages have been achieved and consolidated encourage the use of the language in local government services and mass media.
8. Where the above stages have been achieved and consolidated encourage use of the language in higher education, government etc.

This model of language revival is intended to direct efforts to where they are most effective and to avoid wasting energy trying to achieve the later stages of recovery when the earlier stages have not been achieved. For instance it is probably wasteful of effort to campaign for the use of the language on television or in government services if hardly any families are in the habit of using the language.

Factors which help an endangered language to progress

David Crystal, in his book 'Language Death', proposes six factors which may help a language to progress. He postulates that an endangered language will progress if its speakers:- Professor David Crystal, OBE (born 1941 in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, UK) is a linguist, academic and author. ...

1. increase their prestige within the dominant community
2. increase their wealth
3. increase their legitimate power in the eyes of the dominant community
4. have a strong presence in the education system
5. can write the language down
6. can make use of electronic technology

See also

• List of revived languages
• List of extinct languages
• List of endangered languages
• Language policy
• Linguicide
• Minority language
• Regional language
• List of language regulators
• Finland's language strife
• Second language acquisition

Revived languages are those which, having experienced near or complete extinction as either a spoken or written language, were intentionally revived and in the end regained some of their former status. ... This is a list of languages that underwent language death and currently have no native speakers. ... A list of endangered languages (with fewer than 1000 speakers or in rapid decline). ... Many countries have a language policy designed to favour or discourage the use of a particular language or set of languages. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... A minority language is a language spoken by a minority of the population of a country. ... A regional language is a language spoken in a part of a country - it may be a small area, a federal state or province, or a wider area. ... This is a list of bodies that regulate languages. ... The language strife was one of the major conflicts of Finlands national history and domestic politics. ... Second language acquisition, or SLA, is the process by which people learn languages in addition to their native language(s). ...

Books

• Endangered Languages : Language Loss and Community Response (ISBN 0-521-59712-9)
• Language Death (ISBN 0-521-01271-6)
• Vanishing Voices (ISBN 0-19-515246-8)

External links

• The Language Conservancy
• Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project
• The Endangered Language Fund
• Foundation for Endangered Languages
• Cajun Ethnicity and the Intergenerational Transmission of Louisiana French

References

• 1991 Reversing language Shift: Theory and Practice of Assistance to Threatened Languages. Clevedon, Multilingual Matters. [1]

• 1999 Reyhner, Jon (Ed.). (1999). Revitalizing indigenous languages. Flagstaff, AZ: Northern Arizona University, Center for Excellence in Education. ISBN 0-9670554-0-7.

• 2000 Can Threatened Languages Be Saved? Clevedon, Multilingual Matters. [2]

• 2000, David Crystal, Language Death, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-65321-5 (417.7).