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

语言转换是双语社区逐渐停止使用一种语言而倾向于使用另一种语言的过程。受青睐的语言几乎毫无例外地是多数人或占主导地位的语言群体的语言;在过去的世纪里，大多数国家受青睐的语言都是现在或以前的殖民国家的语言。当社区成为最后一批使用这种不受欢迎语言的人的家园时，这种语言就会面临濒危，并最终死亡。关于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，这既加速了对语言变迁的研究，也加速了扭转这一进程的努力。语言的维持或振兴工作取得完全成功的例子很少。一旦语言转变的过程开始，语言的丧失迫在眉睫，这种语言再作为社区的第一和主要语言使用的可能性就很小了。作为语言转变过程的持续工作的一部分，本项目将研究在尚未发生语言向主要民族语言转变的多语种语言社区中，照顾者向儿童的语言传播。在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，那里的发言者是加里富纳和伯利兹克里奥尔语（也称为Bileez Kriol）的双语者。虽然通常不可能在语言转变发生之前预测它，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里富纳语的社区之一，尽管这种语言在中美洲的大多数社区都奄奄一息，因为它曾经是主要的交流语言。因此，霍普金斯提供了一个潜在的机会，从一个比以前可能的更早的点来检查语言的转变。要么是霍普金斯的语言转变被推迟，但迫在眉睫，跟随其他加里富纳语社区的趋势，要么是一些社会文化因素确保了语言继续传播的成功，而不像那些明显相似的社区已经停止传播他们的历史民族语言。本论文项目的目标是通过访谈，观察和录音的照顾者和儿童的讲话，探讨语言转变和语言态度的霍普金斯扬声器的早期指标。

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.