Can Threatened Languages be Saved?

This book provides both practical case studies and theoretical directions from five continents and advances the collective pursuit of "reversing language shift" for the greater benefit of cultural democracy everywhere.

Defenders of threatened languages all over the world, from advocates of biodiversity to dedicated defenders of their own cultural authenticity, are often humbled by the immensity of the task that they are faced with when the weak and the few seek to find a safe-harbour against the ravages of the strong and the many. This book provides both practical case studies and theoretical directions from all five continents and advances thereby the collective pursuit of "reversing language shift" for the greater benefit of cultural democracy everywhere.

PREFACE: Reversing Language Shift
1. Why is it so hard to save a threatened language? Joshua A. Fishman
THE AMERICAS:
2. Reversing Navajo Language Shift, Revisited Tiffany Lee (Stanford Univ) & Daniel McLaughlin (Dine College)
3. How Threatened is the Spanish of New York Puerto Ricans? Ofelia Garcia (Long Island Univ) Jose Luis Morin (City Univ of New York) & Klaudia Rivera (Long Island Univ)
4. A Decade in the Life of a Two-in-One Language - Yiddish in New York City Joshua A. Fishman
5. Reversing Language Shift in Quebec Richard Y. Bourhis (Universite du Quebec a Montreal)
6. Otomi language shift and some recent efforts to reverse it Yolanda Lastra (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico)
7. Reversing Quechua language shift in South America Nancy H. Hornberger (Univ of Pennsylvania) & Kendall A. King (New York Univ)
EUROPE:
8. Irish Language Production and Reproduction 1981-1996 Pádraig Ó Riagáin (Institiuid Teangeolaiochta Eireann)
9. A Frisian Update of Reversing Language Shift Durk Gorter (Fryske Academy)
10. Reversing Language Shift: The Case of Basque Maria-Jose Azurmendi (Univ of the Basque Country), Erramun Bachoc (Basque Cultural Institute), Francisca Zabeleta (Public University of Navarre)
11. Catalan A Decade Later Miquel Strubell (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)
AFRICA AND ASIA:
12. Saving Threatened Languages in Africa: A Case Study of Oko Efurosibina Adegbija (Univ of Ilorin, Nigeria)
13. Andamanese: Biological Challenge for Language Reversal E. Annamalai & V. Gnanasundaram (C.I.I.L, Mysore)
14. "Akor Itak" Our Language, Your Language - Ainu in Japan John C. Maher (International Christian Univ, Tokyo)
15. Hebrew After a Century of RLS Efforts Bernard Spolsky (Bar-Illan Univy) & Elana Shohamy (Tel Aviv Univ).
THE PACIFIC:
16. Can the Shift from Immigrant Languages be Reversed in Australia? Michael Clyne (Monash Univ)
17. Is the Extinction of Australia's Indigenous Languages Inevitable? Joseph Lo Bianco & Mari Rhydwen (National Language and Literacy Institute of Australia)
18. RLS in Aotearoa/New Zealand 1989-1999 Richard & Nena Benton (Waikato University)
CONCLUSIONS:
19. From Theory to Practice (and Vice Versa): Review, Reconsideration and Reiteration Joshua A. Fishman