Leonard Refusing Endangered Languages

Refusing “Endangered Languages” Narratives

Language Endangerment: A global crisis impacting Indigenous languages.
Endangered Languages Narrative: A dominant discourse that may overlook injustices causing language shift.
Purpose of Essay: To promote social justice through understanding the causes of language endangerment and proposing accountable interventions.
Personal Experience: The author's Native American background and experience with language recovery highlights the issues discussed.
UNESCO Declaration: Acknowledgment that a significant percentage of spoken languages may become extinct; emphasizes the crisis particularly for Indigenous languages.

Community Language Shift: Describes how Indigenous languages are not passed to new generations due to historical and ongoing injustices.
Positive Developments: Increased awareness, community language programs, and activist networks are arising in response to the crisis.

International Decade of Indigenous Languages (IDIL): Aims to promote Indigenous language rights and revitalization.
Native American Languages Act (1990): U.S. policy to support preservation and development of Native languages, contrasting past governmental violence.
Community Initiatives: The Miami Tribe’s efforts in language recovery demonstrate successful language reclamation practices.

Focus on Loss: The prevailing narrative emphasizes language extinction without acknowledging the historical context or injustices.
Crisis Framing: Language endangerment often likened to biological extinction, invoking a sense of inevitability that discourages intervention.
Misleading Statistics: Claims about the rate of language death are often exaggerated and fail to reflect the complexities of language use.

Beliefs and Practices: Negative beliefs about Indigenous languages influence public narrative and policy.
Historical Context: Narratives regarding language loss often overlook the role of colonialism and the ongoing impacts of oppression.

Decolonial Approaches: Reclamation focuses on rebuilding relationships disrupted by colonial practices and education policies.
Miami Language Recovery: Personal accounts and community efforts illustrate how language recovery can empower communities.
Relational Model: Emphasizes the interconnectedness of language, culture, and community, contrasting with reductionist linguistic approaches.

Shift from “Endangered Languages” to “Language Endangerment”: Focus on processes rather than objects, highlighting community ecologies in language work.
Emphasizing Agency: Suggests addressing the oppressors of language shift rather than framing languages solely as victims of loss.
Incorporating Lived Experiences: Prioritize the perspectives of Indigenous community members in narratives of language reclamation.

Engagement with Social Justice: Calls for a shift in focus away from the narrative of loss to a framework that highlights injustice and advocacy for language rights.
Valuing Indigenous Insights: Encourages listening to Indigenous discourse on language endangerment and incorporating their experiences into broader discussions of linguistics and justice.