Editing Language revitalization (section)

== Theory ==
One of the most important preliminary steps in language revitalization/recovering involves establishing the degree to which a particular language has been “dislocated.” This helps involved parties find the best way to assist or revive the language.<ref>{{cite book|last=Tsunoda|first=Tasaku|title=Language Endangerment and Language Revitalization|year=2005|publisher=Mounton de Gruyter|location=Berlin|page=170}}</ref>

=== Steps in reversing language shift ===
There are many different theories or models that attempt to lay out a plan for language revitalization. One of these is provided by celebrated linguist [[Joshua Fishman]].
Fishman's model for reviving threatened (or sleeping) languages, or for making them sustainable,<ref>Fishman, J. A. (1991). ''Reversing language Shift: Theory and Practice of Assistance to Threatened Languages''. Clevedon : Multilingual Matters.</ref><ref>Fishman, J. A. (ed.) (2001). ''Can Threatened Languages Be Saved? Reversing Language Shift, Revisited: A 21st Century Perspective''. Clevedon : Multilingual Matters.</ref> consists of an eight-stage process. Efforts should be concentrated on the earlier stages of restoration until they have been consolidated before proceeding to the later stages. The eight stages are:

#Acquisition of the language by adults, who in effect act as language apprentices (recommended where most of the remaining speakers of the language are elderly and socially isolated from other speakers of the language).
#Create a socially integrated population of active speakers (or users) of the language (at this stage it is usually best to concentrate mainly on the spoken language rather than the written language).
#In localities where there are a reasonable number of people habitually using the language, encourage the informal use of the language among people of all age groups and within families and bolster its daily use through the establishment of local neighbourhood institutions in which the language is encouraged, protected and (in certain contexts at least) used exclusively.
#In areas where oral competence in the language has been achieved in all age groups, encourage literacy in the language, but in a way that does not depend upon assistance from (or goodwill of) the state education system.
#Where the state permits it, and where numbers warrant, encourage the use of the language in compulsory state education.
#Where the above stages have been achieved and consolidated, encourage the use of the language in the workplace.
#Where the above stages have been achieved and consolidated, encourage the use of the language in local government services and mass media.
#Where the above stages have been achieved and consolidated, encourage use of the language in higher education, government, etc.

This model of language revival is intended to direct efforts to where they are most effective and to avoid wasting energy trying to achieve the later stages of recovery when the earlier stages have not been achieved. For instance, it is probably wasteful to campaign for the use of a language on television or in government services if hardly any families are in the habit of using the language.

Additionally, Tasaku Tsunoda describes a range of different techniques or methods that speakers can use to try to revitalize a language, including techniques to revive extinct languages and maintain weak ones. The techniques he lists are often limited to the current vitality of the language.

He claims that the [[Language immersion|immersion]] method cannot be used to revitalize an extinct or moribund language. In contrast, the master-apprentice method of one-on-one transmission on language proficiency can be used with moribund languages. Several other methods of revitalization, including those that rely on technology such as recordings or media, can be used for languages in any state of viability.<ref name=illustrate>{{cite book |last=Tsunoda |first=Tasaku |title=Language Endangerment and Language Revitalization |location=Berlin |publisher=Mouton [[De Gruyter]] |year=2005 |page=201 }}</ref>

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
|+ A method's effectiveness depends on the language's viability.<ref name=illustrate/>
! Method 
! colspan="3" |[[Degree of endangerment]]
|-
! !! Weakening !! Moribund !! Dead/extinct
|-
| Immersion|| {{yes|effective}} || {{no|ineffective}} || {{no|ineffective}}
|-
| Neighborhood || {{yes|effective}}|| {{no|ineffective}} || {{no|ineffective}}
|-
| Bilingual || {{yes|effective}} || {{no|ineffective}} || {{no|ineffective}}
|-
| Master-apprentice || {{yes|effective}} || {{yes|effective}} || {{no|ineffective}}
|-
| [[Total physical response]] || {{yes|effective}} || {{yes|effective}} || {{no|ineffective}}
|-
| Telephone || {{yes|effective}} || {{yes|effective}} || {{no|ineffective}}
|-
| Radio || {{yes|effective}} || {{yes|effective}} || {{yes|effective}}
|-
| Multimedia || {{yes|effective}} || {{yes|effective}} || {{yes|effective}}
|-
| Two-way || {{yes|effective}} || {{yes|effective}} || {{yes|effective}}
|-
| Formulaic|| {{yes|effective}} || {{yes|effective}} || {{yes|effective}}
|-
| Artificial [[pidgin]]|| {{yes|effective}} || {{yes|effective}} || {{yes|effective}}
|-
| Place name || {{yes|effective}} || {{yes|effective}} || {{yes|effective}}
|-
| Reclamation || {{yes|effective}} || {{yes|effective}} || {{yes|effective}}
|-
| Adoption|| {{yes|effective}} || {{yes|effective}} || {{yes|effective}}
|}

=== Factors in successful language revitalization ===
[[David Crystal]], in his book ''Language Death'', proposes that language revitalization is more likely to be successful if its speakers:
* increase the [[language's prestige]] within the dominant community;
* increase their wealth and income;
* increase their legitimate power in the eyes of the dominant community;
* have a strong presence in the education system;
* can write down the language;
* can use electronic technology.<ref>{{cite book |last=Crystal |first=D. |date=2000 |title=Language Death |location=Cambridge |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |pages=130–141 |isbn=0-521-65321-5}}</ref>

In her book, ''Endangered Languages: An Introduction,'' [[Sarah Thomason]] notes the success of revival efforts for modern Hebrew and the relative success of revitalizing Maori in New Zealand (see ''Specific Examples'' below). One notable factor these two examples share is that the children were raised in fully immersive environments.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thomason |first=Sarah |title=Endangered Languages: An Introduction |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-521-68453-8 |location=United Kingdom |pages=6}}</ref> In the case of Hebrew, it was on early collective-communities called [[kibbutz]]im.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thomason |first=Sarah |title=Endangered Languages: An Introduction |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-521-68453-8 |location=United Kingdom |pages=156–159}}</ref> For the Maori language In New Zealand, this was done through a [[language nest]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thomason |first=Sarah |title=Endangered Languages: An Introduction |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-521-68453-8 |location=United Kingdom |pages=165}}</ref>

=== Revival linguistics ===
[[Ghil'ad Zuckermann]] proposes "Revival Linguistics" as a new linguistic discipline and paradigm.
{{Blockquote|Zuckermann's term 'Revival Linguistics' is modelled upon 'Contact Linguistics'. Revival linguistics inter alia explores the universal constraints and mechanisms involved in language reclamation, renewal and revitalization. It draws perspicacious comparative insights from one revival attempt to another, thus acting as an epistemological bridge between parallel discourses in various local attempts to revive sleeping tongues all over the globe.<ref>[[Ghil'ad Zuckermann|Zuckermann, Ghil'ad]] and Walsh, Michael 2011. [https://adelaide.academia.edu/Zuckermann/Papers/267186/Stop_Revive_Survive_Lessons_from_the_Hebrew_Revival_Applicable_to_the_Reclamation_Maintenance_and_Empowerment_of_Aboriginal_Languages_and_Cultures 'Stop, Revive, Survive: Lessons from the Hebrew Revival Applicable to the Reclamation, Maintenance and Empowerment of Aboriginal Languages and Cultures'], ''Australian Journal of Linguistics'' Vol. 31, No. 1, pp. 111-127.</ref>}}

According to Zuckermann, "revival linguistics combines scientific studies of native language acquisition and foreign language learning. After all, language reclamation is the most extreme case of second-language learning. Revival linguistics complements the established area of [[language documentation|documentary linguistics]], which records endangered languages before they fall asleep."<ref name=autogenerated1 />

Zuckermann proposes that "revival linguistics changes the field of historical linguistics by, for instance, weakening the family [[tree model]], which implies that a language has only one parent."<ref name=autogenerated1 />

There are disagreements in the field of language revitalization as to the degree that revival should concentrate on maintaining the traditional language, versus allowing simplification or widespread borrowing from the [[majority language]].

==== Compromise ====
Zuckermann acknowledges the presence of "local peculiarities and idiosyncrasies"<ref name=autogenerated1>Ghil'ad Zuckermann, [http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/opinion/stop-revive-and-survive/story-e6frgcko-1226385194433 "Stop, revive and survive"], ''The Australian, Higher Education'', June 6, 2012.</ref> but suggests that <blockquote>"there are linguistic constraints applicable to all revival attempts. Mastering them would help revivalists and first nations' leaders to work more efficiently. For example, it is easier to resurrect basic vocabulary and verbal conjugations than sounds and word order. Revivalists should be realistic and abandon discouraging, counter-productive slogans such as "Give us authenticity or give us death!"<ref name=autogenerated1 /></blockquote> [[Nancy Dorian]] has pointed out that conservative attitudes toward [[loanwords]] and grammatical changes often hamper efforts to revitalize endangered languages (as with [[Tiwi language|Tiwi]] in Australia), and that a division can exist between educated revitalizers, interested in historicity, and remaining speakers interested in locally authentic idiom (as has sometimes occurred with [[Irish language|Irish]]). Some have argued that structural compromise may, in fact, enhance the prospects of survival, as may have been the case with English in the post-[[Norman period]].<ref>Nancy C. Dorian, ‘Purism v. compromise in language revitalisation and language revival’ in 
''Language in Society'' 23, pp. 479-494.</ref>

==== Traditionalist ====
Other linguists have argued that when language revitalization borrows heavily from the majority language, the result is a new language, perhaps a [[creole language|creole]] or [[pidgin]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jones |first1=Mari C. |title=Language Obsolescence and Revitalization: Linguistic Change in Two Sociolinguistically Contrasting Welsh Communities |publisher=[[Clarendon Press]] |isbn=9780198237112 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w9u_GG41b_8C&q=neo+breton+language&pg=PA323 |access-date=6 April 2017 |language=en |year=1998 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> For example, the existence of "Neo-Hawaiian" as a separate language from "Traditional Hawaiian" has been proposed, due to the heavy influence of English on every aspect of the revived Hawaiian language.<ref>{{cite journal |first=R. Keao |last=NeSmith |title=Tūtū's Hawaiian and the Emergence of a Neo Hawaiian Language |journal='Ōiwi Journal3—A Native Hawaiian Journal |date=2005 |url=http://hstrial-knesmith.homestead.com/Oiwi-Journal-_3-1-09_.pdf |access-date=6 April 2017}}</ref> This has also been proposed for Irish, with a sharp division between "Urban Irish" (spoken by second-language speakers) and traditional Irish (as spoken as a first language in [[Gaeltacht]] areas). Ó Béarra stated: "[to] follow the syntax and idiomatic conventions of English, [would be] producing what amounts to little more than English in Irish drag."<ref>{{cite conference |orig-year=2007 |editor-last=Tristram |editor-first=Hildegard L. C. |title=The Celtic Languages in Contact |conference=Thirteenth International Congress of Celtic Studies, Bonn, 26–27 July 2007 |publisher=[[University of Potsdam]] Press |isbn=978-3-940793-07-2 |pages=260–269 |first=Feargal |last=Ó Béarra |chapter=Modern Period: Late Modern Irish and the Dynamics of Language Change and Language Death |date=18 July 2008 |chapter-url=https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/opus4-ubp/frontdoor/deliver/index/docId/1750/file/260_269.pdf |access-date=6 April 2017 |language=en }}</ref> With regard to the then-moribund [[Manx language]], the scholar T. F. O'Rahilly stated, "When a language surrenders itself to foreign idiom, and when all its speakers become bilingual, the penalty is death."<ref>{{cite book |last1=O'Rahilly |first1=Thomas Francis |title=Irish Dialects Past and Present: With Chapters on Scottish and Manx |date=1932 |publisher=Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies |location=Dublin |page=121 |isbn=9780901282552 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lmFiAAAAMAAJ |access-date=6 April 2017 |language=en |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> Neil McRae has stated that the uses of [[Scottish Gaelic]] are becoming increasingly tokenistic, and native Gaelic idiom is being lost in favor of artificial terms created by second-language speakers.<ref>{{cite web |last1=McRae |first1=Neil |title=Dìlseachd, Lughad agus Saor-thoileachas: moladh airson iomairt Gàidhlig a dh'fhaodadh obrachadh |trans-title=Loyalty, Language and Volunteerism: a proposal for a Gaelic initiative that could work |url=https://www.dropbox.com/s/3p75g1bowhtekzl/Dilseachd%2C%20Lughad%20agus%20Saor-thoileachas%20copy.pdf |access-date=6 April 2017 |language=gd}}</ref>