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Resilience for Minority Languages

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The Palgrave Handbook of Minority Languages and Communities

Abstract

Around the world, minority languages are at risk. Dominant national and international languages are taking over more and more domains of use, and many minority communities have started to value their languages less, and use them less or not at all, even within the group. Once the process of language shift has started, it is difficult to reverse. Taking a cue from resilience thinking, which has developed over the last 20 years within ecology and in other disciplines, this chapter shows how a minority community can choose to halt or reverse language shift, reclaim their language, and achieve a new stable equilibrium for the language. Firstly, the extent of these effects and their negative impact on language shift are very briefly discussed, as well as some of the major factors in language endangerment. Then, the methods for reversing this shift and reclaiming a minority’s traditional language are briefly outlined, with some examples. Finally, some of the advantages of doing so are suggested.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The Gurkha have been recruited from various specific minority groups in Nepal to serve in military units under British officers and stationed elsewhere, usually far from Nepal, since the early nineteenth century. This has continued since 1947 with both British and Indian Gurkha forces, the latter with Indian officers. The term Gurkha is derived from the name of a town in western Nepal and the dynasty of rulers of Nepal who spread from there in the eighteenth century.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. La Trobe University, Bundoora, VIC, Australia

    David Bradley

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  1. David Bradley
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Correspondence to David Bradley .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

    Gabrielle Hogan-Brun

  2. Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

    Bernadette O’Rourke

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Bradley, D. (2019). Resilience for Minority Languages. In: Hogan-Brun, G., O’Rourke, B. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Minority Languages and Communities. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54066-9_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54066-9_20

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-54065-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-54066-9

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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