Language Death

Gauging that half of the world's estimated 6000 languages are threatened with extinction in the next 100 years, Crystal (editor, Cambridge Encyclopedia) explains why this is problematic and what can be done about it. He analyzes statistics that indicate the number of dying languages, explains the physical and cultural pressures contributing to language death, and cites bi- and multilingualism as the key to maintaining linguistic diversity. He also appeals to multiculturalism, noting the unique contributions linguistic diversity makes to both the arts and the sciences. Moreover, Crystal provides six characteristics of successful language maintenance efforts, which ideally combine literacy and education with improving the economic and political standing of the minority-language community. This well-documented book serves best as a starting point for further research. Not listed in the bibliography are two related books also being published this year: in Vanishing Voices (LJ 6/15/00), Daniel Nettle and Suzanne Romaine examine the current domination of a few languages and provide economic and ecological motivation to support linguistic diversity, while editor Joshua Fishman's forthcoming Can Threatened Languages Be Saved? (Multilingual Matters, 2000) contains case studies about a number of languages.

Review
"His apparatus is remarkably useful and lucid. Especially valuable are his indexes of dialects, languages, language families, and ethnic groups...Language Death offers compact, profound, and easily accessible insights into the problem of linguistic extinction." Choice

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