About
Language Revitalization
It is estimated that more than 7,000 languages are used around the world. However, language diversity has been declining worldwide for several hundreds of years due to socio-cultural, political, and economic factors. As many as 46% of the languages in the world are considered to be endangered to one extent or another. As awareness about the issue of language endangerment has increased, so have the responses.
Language revitalization may refer to any effort intended to sustain the use of a language into the future. Revitalization efforts may include:
- Maintenance of languages which are currently used across all generations especially the younger generations.
- Increased use of a language in domains from which it may have been excluded. These include family and community interaction, educational institutions, media, government, and written communications, among others.
- Reclamation or awakening of languages that for a period of time have not had native speakers.
LRL Values
The Language Revitalization Lab (LRL) follows a community-based model in which research questions are grounded on the interests, needs, and protocols of communities working to revitalize their languages.
The LRL takes as a basic tenet that for a language to be revitalized, the necessary conditions for the language to thrive must be maintained or (re)created. Therefore, the LRL does not limit its scope of work to language documentation, description or teaching.
The LRL follows the principle that academic disciplines need to come together to contribute meaningfully to language revitalization efforts and encourages interdisciplinary processes. The LRL seeks synergies in areas of environmental conservation, education, psychology and sociology and other fields in which the University of Oregon has expertise. The LRL also brings together language documentation faculty and students to organize weekly readings and research presentations.