Abstract This article examines the origin and growth of language revitalization as a field of both research and practice. Based on the recently published Routledge Handbook of Language Revitalization, the article defines language revitalization as “giving new life and vigor to a language that has been decreasing in use, or which has even ceased being used altogether.” This article argues that language revitalization has grown in tandem with the study of endangered languages, beginning in the late 1980s. It shows how language revitalization emerged as a distinct field of research in the early twenty-first century, and has become increasingly interdisciplinary since this time. Case studies of language revitalization are offered to demonstrate the ways in which research and practice intertwine in different social, political, and cultural contexts. The article concludes by briefly examining two significant trends in the development of the field: the growth of teaching programs in language revitalization, and the emergence of ethnographic studies of language revitalization.
|
|
|
|
|