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Endangered languages: There's nothing benign about benign neglect
Romaine, Suzanne http://www.stoa.org.uk/topics/language/endangered-languages.html
Publisher: NORRAG News
Year Published: 2004
Resource Type: Article
in many cases, language death occurred not because of an increase in the available choices, but because of a decrease in choice brought about by the exercise of undemocratic power. Such power is almost always wielded by denying access to resources from which communities make their living. Languages can only exist where there is a community to speak and transmit them. A community of people can exist only where there is a viable environment for them to live in, and a means of making a living. Where communities cannot thrive, their languages are in danger. When languages lose their speakers, they die. The idea that linguistic diversity should be preserved is not a sentimental clinging-on to some idealized past as critics suggest, but part of the promotion of sustainable, appropriate, empowering development.
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