Revitalizing Minority Languages

Michael Hornsby

"In recent decades the 'death' of minority languages has attracted the attention of journalists, scholars and the general public and now features in various discourses about the decline of ecological and cultural diversity due to globalization. Many minority languages are undergoing revitalization (mainly through educational initiatives) and, as a result, some of these languages can demonstrate a slowing down in the rate of decline in the number of speakers. This has led to the appearance, in many instances, of so-called 'new' speakers, that is speakers who have acquired a minority language outside the traditional conduits of family and/or community. This book examines the background to this phenomenon and demonstrates how new speakers have appeared among Breton, Yiddish and Lemko speakers, all of whom demonstrate similar struggles and successes in their attempts to use their adopted...