Language maintenance and shift

4 important questions on Language maintenance and shift

What is the cause of language death?

When all the people who speak a language die, the language dies with them.

More domains (situations) of majority language use  fewer contexts to use ethnic language

Keeps being pushed out until it is used only in the home
Finally it is restricted to such personal activities as counting, praying and dreaming.

What factors lead to language shift

Attitudes and values
1. Language shift is slower among communities where the minority language is highly valued

2. When the language is seen as an important symbol of ethnic identity its generally maintained longer, and visa versa.

How can language revival be done?


- TV channels
- Bilingual education programs
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What are some important factors in the success of revival?

- How strongly people want it back
- The reasons for wanting to revive it

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