Endangered Languages—Critical Concepts in Language Studies

Most of the seven thousand or so languages spoken today are in danger of disappearing during the twenty-first century. Although languages have always come and gone, the current rate of language extinction is unprecedented, a loss which not only affects individual communities but also diminishes the world’s linguistic heritage. This crisis has stimulated a variety of responses from linguists: sociolinguists have been concerned with the study of language revitalization (how the tendency to shift away from minority languages can be reversed), while general linguists have paid more attention to the structural aspects of language endangerment (how languages change as they fall into disuse). In recent years, linguists have been particularly concerned with language documentation (the activity of capturing, annotating, and archiving audiovisual recordings of languages before they are lost). In addition, all linguists working on endangered languages face the ethical question of how much effort they should devote to non-academic activities in support of the communities with whom they work.

The study of language endangerment is a relatively new subfield within linguistics, and this four-volume collection is the first of its kind, bringing together research on language endangerment from the leading scholars of the last sixty years. A general introduction by the editors gives an overview of the main issues faced by scholars of language endangerment today, while specific volume introductions provide a research context for the individual pieces. Endangered Languages is an essential one-stop work of reference and will be appreciated by researchers and students of language endangerment and related disciplines.