Language Vitality Research Articles

Semio-linguistic Norms and Variations of French in Urban and Commercial Spaces in Japan

The presence of English has grown in public and commercial spaces of urban localities across the world, yet the French language is gaining an increasing presence in Japan and is thus characterizing its linguistic landscape of its cities. Many language signs in these cities containing names of shops or products in French, appear on storefronts and packages. These texts seemingly convey shop policies or product images rather than a correct use of the French language. These situations require us to cast questions such as the following: 1) Which categories produce signs in French? 2) Which demographics constitute targeted receivers of these signs? 3) To what extent to these demographics comprehend the language n these signs? 4) What are the formal features specific to these signs? 5) What are the motivations and identities of the stakeholders of signs? 6) What are the motives for opting for French rather than other foreign languages in Japanese society? To respond to these questions, in this article, I will report on my preliminary analysis of signage data collected over several years throughout Japan’s urban centres. For this, I will discuss the presence of foreign languages in Japanese society and its language (loanwords, writing systems, foreign language in the media), after which, the article alludes to the ethnolinguistic vitality of French in the society. This vitality of the French language in Japan’s urban linguistic landscapes is described by the form and presence of metalinguistic variation, that is, the form and meaning of elements of French in signage in Japan’s cities.

Promotion of Multilingualism and Preservation of the Hungarian Language in the Cyberspace

Globalization will cause 50-90% of the spoken languages to disappear in the next 100 years. This paper gives a report about the Hungarian language, which is also a minority language and many speakers of the Hungarian language are in bilingual and multilingual situation. Preserving the Hungarian language and culture in the multilingual world requires a special language policy. New factors will be added to the UNESCO’s Major Evaluative Factors of Language Vitality, and the actions taken in Hungary to promote multilingualism and preserve the Hungarian language will be described. Special emphasis will be given to the multilingual cyberspace.

МОВНА ІДЕНТИЧНІСТЬ ЕТНІЧНИХ СПІЛЬНОТ У КОНТЕКСТІ УКРАЇНСЬКОЇ МОВНОЇ СИТУАЦІЇ

The article outlines the main sociolinguistic parameters of collective language identity. The role of such constructs as ethnicity, statehood, linguistic and cultural value is considered in terms of the formation of language identity. The approach to the analysis here was chosen with taking account of the post-totalitarian specifics of the language situation in Ukraine. The correlation between ethnolanguage and national language identity has been traced. Determinants such as language status, language vitality, sociolinguistic capacity of communities and institutional support are taken into consideration. The importance of language management and language planning in the country and innovative principles of European language policies (language tolerance, language integration, preservation of endangered languages and emphasis on language rights) are underlined as points of reference for focusing on the language identity of ethnic communities. Theoretical substantiation of the concepts “ethnolinguistic identity” and “national (state) language identity” is offered.

Language Vitality, Attitude and Endangerment: Understanding from Field Work among Lodha Speakers

Lodhas are marginalized scheduled tribe groups in West Bengal, India. They are called as criminal tribes till the revocation of the Criminal Tribes’ Act of 1952. Lodha is an Indo-Aryan language, spoken by Lodhas in some villages of West Bengal, India. This paper has four objectives. First, this paper discussed about the effect of the dominant languages. Here we made an attempt to study the impact of Bangla influencing on Lodha language. This paper also talks about Language attitude of this community. To grow up their economy now they try to interact with the non-tribal Indo-Aryan population and they try to forget their own language. So we will discuss in detail their language attitude to know the present condition of Lodha. We discuss the socio-economic condition of Lodha. How this condition creates a barrier against them, we will discuss this in our paper by exemplified the situation. At last, this paper is to assess the nature and degree of language endangerment of Lodha based on UNESCO’s Language Vitality and Endangerment framework.

Dynamics, Costs, and Survival of Minorities: Optimal Language Policies for Increasing the Vitality of Minority Languages

It is assumed that language policy can influence the language in which parents choose to raise their children. A basic model of language transmission in the family is outlined and the effect of different policies on the vitality of a minority language is analyzed. It is argued that the habitation patterns and numerical strength of the minority have a strong influence on the cost effectiveness of various policy measures. It is shown that by classifying language policies into four distinct categories we can assign different policies to different minorities in a cost-effective manner, based on the size of the jurisdiction where the minority lives and its numerical strength within it. We provide a general intuitive discussion and a specific example to support the general analysis.

The Russian language maintenance and language contacts

In our introductory article, we outline the main sociolinguistic features of Russian as a heritage language of post-Soviet immigrants in European settings and beyond. We offer a general overview of the evolution of Russian as a global language, with a particular focus on its geodemographics and economic and social value as a lingua franca . Based on this, we analyse the main principles defining the maintenance of Russian as a language of migration and as a heritage language in different countries, and emphasise the most important questions that still need to be addressed in this field of research. The main objective of this special issue is to combine the most recent research on the vitality of different languages of post-Soviet republics in new political milieu, with a particular focus on European and Asian countries, but there are other objectives as well. We propose to explore the factors that have either favoured or hindered the maintenance and transmission of languages of post-Soviet immigrants and repatriates, and how these sociolinguistic processes become evident in language vitality on both private and public levels. Our special issue primarily addresses the questions of family language policy, new language contacts and their management, and linguistic landscape in heritage speakers, diasporas and their new settings in Europe, Asia and the US.

Language choice and language contact in print advertisements for Russian-speaking immigrants in Germany

This study aims to analyze linguistic contact in a written language on a sample of advertisements for Russian-speaking immigrants in the German city of Nuremberg, where there is a well-developed infrastructure for Russian-speaking immigrants, including the availability of periodicals. The study has the following research questions: What functions do Russian and German, as well as other languages, perform in advertisements in periodicals for Russian-speaking immigrants? Is there a correlation between the subject matter of the ads and the language or languages used? What phenomena of language contact found in the spoken language of Russian-speaking immigrants are characteristic of advertisements? A corpus consisting of 443 advertisements, obtained through continuous sampling from periodicals, was collected for the study. The analysis revealed that Russian, German, English, Ukrainian, and Latin fulfil specific functions in the advertisements. It was found that, depending on the subject matter, advertisers choose a particular language or language combination for their ads. At the lexical and morphosyntactic levels were identified borrowings from German and English, entirely or partially grammatically integrated into Russian, and cases of code-switching between Russian and German. Thereby, the study highlights one aspect of the linguistic situation of the Russian-speaking community in Germany and may implicitly serve to assess the vitality of the Russian language in Germany.

Rádios Indígenas: Brazil’s Indigenous Language Broadcasting Landscape

ABSTRACT This article offers a critical review of Brazil’s Indigenous language broadcasting landscape, from traditional analogue transmission to podcasts and online radio. The study introduces Brazil’s Indigenous linguistic diversity and locates the current vitality of Indigenous languages within Brazil’s constitutional provisions and broadcasting legislation that both support and impede programming in languages other than Portuguese. Following an assessment of media penetration and uptake, and a contrastive review of four Brazilian radio stations that have either substantial Indigenous content or a dedicated focus on Indigenous issues, the article concludes with an assessment of the outlook and challenges for programming in this sector.

COVID-19 trending neologisms and word formation processes in English

The surge of new words and phrases accompanying the sudden COVID-19 outbreak has created new lexical and sociolinguistic changes that have become part of our lives. The emergence of COVID-19s coinages has remarkably increased to establish a trending base of global neologisms. The present study attempts to investigate the nature of the new English words and expressions that emerged in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. It also identifies the type of word-formation processes that contributed to the emergence of these neologisms in the English language. The researchers compiled a corpus of 208 COVID-19-inspired neologisms from different sources, including social networking websites, search engines, blogs, and news articles. The analysis revealed that word-formation processes were so varied to cover all possible forms of derivation, including affixation, compounding, blending, clipping, acronyms, among others, along with dual word-formation processes, with compounding and blending being the most discrete. The findings showed that the flux of new terms demonstrates the creativity and vitality of the English language to respond to emerging situations in times of crisis. The study recommends that further research be carried out on the new terms that have been transferred to other languages as loanwords, loan-translations and loan-blends.

Новые носители марийского как фактор витальности этнического языка в диаспоре

New speakers are a key object of sociolinguistic analysis in minority language research and an important factor in language vitality. The present article, based on a sociolinguistic survey conducted by the author among the Mari diaspora in the Moscow region, deals with the problem of new Mari speakers. These are people who seek to become members of the Moscow Mari language community but face prevailing ideologies of legitimacy, authenticity, purism, and prescriptivism, which not many can overcome.

Mitigating Institutional Attitudes toward Sign Languages: A Model for Language Vitality Surveys.

This paper is about attitudes toward sign languages. The paper presents an idea to help make sign language surveys better in the future. In 2018, UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) published a sign language survey and a spoken language survey together for the first time. This was very important to show that spoken languages and signed languages are equal. But the sign language survey has some weaknesses. The idea presented in this paper says that: when people make sign language surveys, they should be aware of discrimination and negative attitudes; they should give signers access to the survey in sign language; and they should help signers decide what actions they can do to protect their sign language.

Mamaindê Remixed: Locally Sourced and Externally Motivated Language Change in Southern Amazonia

Language change within minority languages is still an underdocumented area of sociolinguistic research. This study addresses that gap by focusing on two speech varieties within Mamaindê, an endangered language of Amazonia. First, the language ecology of Mamaindê is discussed, with attention to the vitality of the traditional language in each of its communities. The structures of the two speech varieties are then described, showing the radical difference in their inflectional morphologies. This is followed by a description of the language use patterns of each and how a former youth speech style has become the accepted language practice for all but the very elderly. leading to generational change. In the conclusion, evidence is offered that suggests this linguistic change is due to societal change, where the youth have gained status in the community and their speech has gained prestige as a result.

Understanding of source code in language: Contribution of philosophical hermeneutics to the critical code studies

AbstractThe article discusses the attempt to understand a source code under the conception of philosophical hermeneutics guided by language. Based on a confrontation between H.-G. Gadamer’s and Paul Ricoeur’s philosophy, our main goal would be searching for the essence of the source code in language. Thus, a closer look is taken into cultural symbols, natural language, and artificial languages. Especially, there would be discussed the problem of abstraction, linguistic community, self-forgetfulness, vitality of formal languages, and display of individuality. This is where the cultural layer of the code can be traced, hence we may find our world-view verbal in nature. In line with the Critical Code Studies approach, in this article, the source code is treated as text. Because of its complexity, the issue should be studied within philosophical inquiry and computer science knowledge. Hence, the perspective developed here goes back to origins and provides a philosophical foundation for Critical Code Studies thinking. The article presents academics with a philosophical challenge: how to understand the source code with an adaptation of a philosophy rejecting artificiality. With philosophical reflection, the source code gains additional meaning and experiences increase in being. Understanding happens in language, which realizes as discourse.

Campus vitality of languages in a Chinese university: evaluation, comparison and reflection

ABSTRACT This paper proposes a concept of campus vitality of languages: the ability of a language to maintain its prestige, visibility and continuity on university campuses. A seven-factor framework is developed for on-the-ground investigation of the relevant languages in a given campus context. These indexical factors are the number, distribution, and proportion of users; usage and visibility in campus domains; and institutional and user attitudes toward the languages. The application of this framework in a second-tier university in China reveals some sociolinguistic information: the presence of more languages on campus does not necessarily increase students’ diversity experiences; English supremacy in higher education in China is posing a threat to the status of the national language in the academic domain, an issue that has drawn administrative attention from the government; a more balanced ecology is not only desirable but also achievable if the seven-factor framework is followed by government and by university management.

Bimodal multilingual education: recognizing the linguistic resources of a diverse deaf world

ABSTRACT Although research of bilingualism in a single aural–oral linguistic mode is common, this has yet to be extended to visual–gestural modes of language use. This is a significant research gap, as deaf people and signed languages are agentic forces that contribute to a diverse global linguistic and sociocultural landscape. In this article, we present a current deaf bilingualism case study in Uruguay to explore ways that education may move beyond a focus on bimodal bilingualism to acquisition of multiple signed languages alongside a spoken one: bimodal multilingualism. We contextualize the Uruguayan case within a broader history of bilingual education and introduce the possibility of an educational initiative in which bimodal multilingual educational opportunities are available through Uruguayan Sign Language (LSU), Spanish, and American Sign Language (ASL). We suggest five areas to attune to as bimodal multilingual educational initiatives are pursued, attending to language vitality and viability related to a number of speakers, intergenerational language transmission, attitudes toward languages, domains of language use, availability of quality language materials, and responses to media use. Finally, we conclude with a call to bilingual education scholars to include an emergent horizon of bimodal multilingual education marked by acquisition of multiple signed languages.

LANGUAGE VITALITY OF SUNDANESE IN CIANJUR CITY

Sundanese language usage patterns can cause the ethnic language itself to shift because of switching to using Indonesian in interethnic communication. This study aims to identify language vitality of Sundanese in Cianjur City. Observations focused on language transmission, number and proportion of speakers, domains of use, domains and new media, availability of teaching and literacy materials, and quality of documentation. The formulation of the problem is how the language vitality of Sundanese in Cianjur City? This study uses a qualitative approach with ethnographic methods performed with ethnographic research procedures. The research findings show that the condition of language transmission in children's language acquisition is at an insecure level and the language vitality is decreasing. The condition of the number and proportion of Sundanese speakers is classified as unsafe. The language vitality of Sundanese in the age group 0--14 years is decreasing. The domain of Sundanese language use includes languages that function as multilingual equality and speakers use each language for different functions. The language vitality is decreasing. The condition of the Sundanese domain and new media is dynamic because it is used in the domain of education, employment, broadcast media on television and radio, the internet, and the cyber world. The language vitality is good and could go to the language of science. The condition of Sundanese teaching materials and literacy has a variety of written material and is used as an educational language in schools, but is not used as an administrative language and the vitality of language is good and has the opportunity to go to science and technology. The condition of Sundanese documentation is complete, and the language vitality is good. Therefore, language vitality of Sundanese is decreased in intergenerational transmission indicators needs strengthening.

Teaching Arabic to Non-Native Speakers between Communication and Pragmatics:Qualitative Approach in Light of the Common European Framework of Reference for Teaching Foreign Languages

This research is qualitative in nature. It aims to investigate descriptively, analytically, and comparatively the modern AK model represented by the Sudan Open University Series, and the European framework, the common reference for Teaching Foreign Languages, to uncover what was achieved in them in terms of communication and language use. Accordingly, an integrated, multi-media approach has been adopted to enable the production and reception activities, and the spread of Arabic in vast areas of the world. Such a spread helps Arabic language to be in a hegemonic position with the other living languages. The study is based on getting benefit from human experiences and joint work in the field of teaching Arabic to non-Arabic speakers to meet the needs of learners. Such knowledge helps to overcome the pragmatic dimension dilemmas, and the duality between formal and colloquial, leading as a result to have a global recognition of its outputs. The study revealed the importance of building the communication and pragmatic capabilities of language learners since they both represent the life and vitality of language. It further necessitates rebuilding curricula and updating them in a way that makes communication and the use of language a reality. The research recommended eliminating any difficulties that face the Arabic language learner from the non-speakers, by making use of what was provided by the Common European Framework of Reference for Teaching Foreign Languages.

О потребности изучения предметов с этнокультурным компонентом в школах Югры

The author has studied the sociolinguistic experience of conducting regional studies among the titular ethnic groups of Ugra. The purpose of the article is to to find out the need to study subjects with ethno-cultural content in Ugra schools by using the questionnaire survey among the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the Kondinsky district. The subject of the study is the indigenous ethnic groups of Ugra – Khanty, Mansi, Nenets. Research methods. The theoretical and methodological foundations of ethno-cultural education are studied. The work used sociological data obtained by questionnaire collection of material. 684 questionnaires were systematized on the basis of the software for processing and analyzing sociological information «Vortex». The article emphasizes the importance of preserving, supporting and using the native languages of the titular peoples of Ugra. As a result of the study, a picture describing the vitality of the indigenous languages of the study area was obtained, and the need for educational subjects with an ethno-cultural component was established. The problem of preserving native languages is acute. In the teaching the subjects with the ethno-cultural component, the motivation and ethnic self-consciousness of the participants themselves (representatives of indigenous small-numbered peoples) are important, who, by their own will, can positively influence the socio-cultural processes of ethnic communities, the linguistic stability and prospects of national languages.

Coolification and Language Vitality: The Case of Esperanto

Despite experiencing a relatively positive revival in the digital age, Esperanto and the assessment of its language vitality is often problematic and prone to gross errors; therefore, a theoretical reflection is required. Unlike other lesser-used languages, Esperanto is intergenerationally transmitted mainly outside the family, and so Fishman’s GIDS and subsequent scales such as the EGIDS cannot be applied straightforwardly for language vitality diagnosis and estimation. In particular, it is the social movement of language activists who have guaranteed Esperanto’s vitality and development for more than a century. A key aspect is the digital domain, where, paradoxically, the relatively good positioning of Esperanto in terms of new users does not imply a parallel increase in the number of activists. This paper critically assesses the digital language vitality of Esperanto on the basis of its language ideology and other sociolinguistic data as a starting point for a discussion to overcome the limits of Blanke’s (2006) scale of language vitality of Esperanto and its rivals (in the sense of Garvía 2015). This assessment eventually leads to a more general reflection on the role of ‘coolification’, i.e., positive effects on language attitudes and development due to digital visibility, its limits and the issue of placing it in the context of language vitality in general.

Preserving and empowering local languages amidst the Covid-19 pandemic; Lessons from East Kalimantan

This article brings together two ostensibly separate subjects: language empowerment and the Covid-19 pandemic. It argues that knowledge of local languages can help disseminate health-related information on a regional level. This addresses two problems simultaneously: the problems raised by the intelligibilty of governmental healthcare protocols and the functions of the use of local languages. The article is a case study presenting a number of interventions in the languages of East Kalimantan and can be seen as an inclusive, grassroots example of health communication. The study was initially a modest attempt to generate on-the-ground examples of health information in the dominant languages of the region of East Kalimantan. These studies demonstrate that the local communities of these languages are very enthusiastic about getting involved in the interventions. They also reveal that communication using IT and social media is thriving. One of our observations was that information about this pandemic tends to be understood only by highly educated urban people. This happens because it is conveyed by the government in standard Indonesian, which includes many foreign loanwords. The application of local languages is not just using local language vocabulary, it is instead a trigger to revive the collective memory of disaster management based on local culture. In this case, local languages are recognized and considered useful in helping to break the chain of virus transmission to free Indonesia of the Covid-19 outbreak. There were a number of unexpected developments. We found support for the intervention being rolled out on a national level by Special Task Force for Covid-19 under National Disaster Management Agency (Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Bencana/BNPB). We also welcomed the online publication by the National Agency for Language Development and Cultivation (Badan Bahasa) of the Handbook for managing behavior about health protocols in seventy-seven local languages. The main thrust of this article should therefore be of interest to anyone working to empower local languages and language vitality.