When Size Doesn't Count: A Comparative Account of Language Endangerment in Australia and Pakistan

Abstract

AbstractIs there a correlation between the resilience of a minority language and the size of its speaker community when that community is colonized by people who speak a different language? In addressing this question in our report, we explore shared experiences of the “colonization” of our languages as Indigenous people from Pakistan and Australia. Adnan Bhatti is Saraiki from the Multan area, Punjab, Pakistan, and Jakelin Troy is Ngarigu from the New South Wales side of the Snowy Mountains region in southeastern Australia. Both pre-1947 India, from which Pakistan was partitioned, and Australia were invaded by the British and subsequently colonized. Troy's language succumbed to English in the nineteenth century, and Bhatti's language faces being overwhelmed by Urdu and, to a lesser degree, by English as well. Population migrations and government policies have adversely affected the capacity of Indigenous peoples to thrive in the use of our languages. This report draws on our larger research project to compare the experiences of minority language speakers in Australia and Pakistan. In reflecting on our own experiences, we consider government policies and a range of community, education, business, health, and media initiatives that variously support or hinder efforts to maintain or revive the use of our languages.1