Doctoral Dissertation Research: Examining Language Transmission in an Endangered Language Speech Community

语言转换是指双语社区逐渐停止使用一种语言而使用另一种语言的过程。受青睐的语言几乎无一例外是多数人或占主导地位的语言群体的语言；在上个世纪的大多数国家，受欢迎的语言一直是当前或以前的殖民大国的语言。当这个社区是最后一个说这种不受欢迎的语言的人的家园时，这种语言就会面临濒危，最终死亡。关于到本世纪末将有大量语言消失的可怕预测，产生了一种新的紧迫感，加速了对语言转变的研究和扭转这一进程的努力。很少有例子表明语言维护或复兴的努力是完全成功的。一旦语言转移的过程开始，语言的丧失迫在眉睫，语言再次作为社区的第一语言和主要语言被使用的可能性就很小了。作为语言转换过程持续研究的一部分，该项目将研究在语言尚未向主导民族语言转换的多语言语言社区中，从照顾者到儿童的语言传播。在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，Maya Ravindranath女士将研究伯利兹霍普金斯的语言社区，那里的发言者使用加利福纳语和伯利兹克里奥尔语（也称为Bileez Kriol）双语。虽然在语言转变发生之前通常无法预测，但霍普金斯社区提供了一个非常独特的情况。霍普金斯仍然是少数几个儿童仍在学习加利福纳语的社区之一，尽管这种语言在中美洲的大多数社区中已经消亡，它曾经是主要的交流语言。因此，霍普金斯大学提供了一个潜在的机会，从一个比以前更早的角度来研究语言的转变。霍普金斯的语言转变要么是延迟的，但即将到来，跟随其他讲加利福纳语的社区的趋势，要么是一些社会文化因素确保了语言传播的成功，不像明显相似的社区已经停止传播其历史上的民族语言。本论文的目的是通过访谈、观察和记录照顾者和儿童的语言，探讨霍普金斯语者语言转变和语言态度的早期指标。

Language shift is the process by which a bilingual community gradually stops using one language in favor of the other. The favored language is almost without exception the language of the majority or dominant linguistic group; in most countries over the past century the favored language has been that of the current or former colonial power. When the community is home to the last speakers of the disfavored language, then the language faces endangerment and, eventually, death. The dire predictions about the large number of languages that will be lost by the end of this century have created a new sense of urgency which has accelerated both the study of language shift and efforts to reverse the process. There are very few examples where language maintenance or revitalization efforts have been completely successful. Once the process of language shift has started and language loss is imminent, there is little chance that the language will ever again be spoken as the first and primary language of the community. As part of the continuing work on the process of language shift, this project will examine language transmission from caregivers to children in a multilingual speech community where language shift to the dominant national language has not yet occurred. With National Science Foundation support, Ms. Maya Ravindranath will study the speech community in Hopkins, Belize, where speakers are bilingual in Garifuna and Belizean Creole (also known as Bileez Kriol). Although it is normally impossible to predict language shift before it happens, the community of Hopkins offers a very unique situation. Hopkins remains one of the few communities where children are still learning Garifuna, even though the language is moribund in most of the communities in Central America where it was once the primary language of communication. Hopkins, therefore, offers a potential opportunity to examine language shift from a much earlier point than has been possible before. Either language shift in Hopkins is delayed but imminent, following the trend of other Garifuna-speaking communities, or some set of sociocultural factors has ensured the success of continuing language transmission, unlike apparently similar communities that have ceased to transmit their historical ethnic language. The goal of this dissertation project is to explore the early indicators of language shift and the language attitudes of Hopkins speakers through interviews, observations, and recordings of caregivers and children's speech.