Miscellaneous published in:
Documentary Linguistics: Working with CommunitiesEdited by Sumittra Suraratdecha and Toshihide Nakayama
[Language Ecology 3:2] 2019
► pp. 233–254
Research Project Report
Language revitalization and community initiatives
An Indian perspective
Bidisha Bhattacharjee | Visva-Bharati, West Bengal
Language is an integral part of the social identity and ethnicity of a community apart from being its mode of
communication. Language plays a key role to preserve the history, culture and identity of a community. In this era of
globalization, cultural and linguistic homogenization is a common trend. The state and dominant linguistic communities expect
‘others’ or the minority groups to assimilate into the dominant culture and language. Arguments for the maintenance and
revitalization of minority and endangered languages have been made by many linguists around the world. Language rights, language
planning and language documentation programmes are some steps taken by government and externally-funded organizations to protect
endangered and indigenous languages. Besides the initiatives taken by the non-members of the community, the future of an
endangered language and culture has been decided by the role and attitude of the community towards its community-specific
linguistic and cultural identity. India is a very diverse country as far as its linguistic and cultural heritage is concerned.
This project is enriched with insights from field experience in various districts of West Bengal, a state in India, where the
speakers of endangered linguistic communities are aware of their linguistic rights and are highly engaged in the language and
cultural revitalization, and in that their degree of progress and success is commendable. This paper aims at demonstrating the
major role played by the communities themselves in language-revitalization programmes.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Language revitalization
- 2.1Language revitalization: Earlier successful attempts
- 3.Linguistic landscape of India
- 4.Mother-tongue and minority linguistic rights
- 5.Revitalization programmes
- 6.Languages in India
- 6.1Language attitudes and community associations
- 6.2Role of script
- 6.3Mother tongue education programme
- 6.4Media, social media and language revitalization
- 7.Future steps
- 8.Conclusion
-
References -
Web sources
Published online: 09 September 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/le.19001.bha
https://doi.org/10.1075/le.19001.bha
References
Campbell, Lyle
Craig, C.
Fishman, J.
Garrett, P., Nikolas, C. and Williams, A.
Grenoble, L. A. & Whaley, L. J.
Grimes, Barbara F.
ed. 1996 Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Fourteenth edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com/14
Hermes, M.
Hinton, L.
Lehman, C.
Date Unknown. Maori and Hawaiian language revitaization. https://www.academia.edu/5892446/Maori_and_Hawaiian_Language_revitalization. Accessed 25th November 2019.
May, S.
Meghanathan, R.
Moseley, Christopher
Nettle, Daniel and Suzanne Romaine
Rao, S.
Romaine, Suzanne
Sallabank, Julia
Shahbaz, M., Azam, L. and Rahim, A.
Singh, K. S.
Singh, Parman
Singh, U. N., Bhattacharjee, B., Chakraborty, R. and Tripathi, A. K.
Warner, S. L.
Web sources
BBC
https://www.bbc.com/news. Accessed 26th November 2019
CENSUS India
https://www.censusindia.gov.in Accessed 12th November 2019
Ethnologue
https://www.ethnologue.com/ Accessed 16th May 2019
Linguistic Atlas Project
http://www.lap.uga.edu/Site/LANE.html Accessed 20th November 2019
The Constitution of India
http://legislative.gov.in/sites/default/files/COI-updated.pdf Accessed 25th November 2019
The Hindu
https://www.thehindu.com Accessed 20th November 2019
UNESCO
www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/endangered-languages/ Accessed 15th November 2019