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Is phonology going haywire in dying languages? Phonological variations in Chipewyan and Sarcee*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Eung-Do Cook
Eung-Do Cook
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, The University of Calgary
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Abstract

The two most conspicuous phenomena reported on dying languages are (a) structural (and stylistic) simplifications and (b) dramatic increases of variability due to incongruent and idiosyncratic “change.” The phonological data from two Athapaskan languages, as well as other published data (Dorian 1973, 1978; Hill 1978; Schmidt 1985a), demonstrate that underlying the apparent degeneration of the system there is an orderly progression which is viewed as a retarded process of language acquisition. Different semispeakers reach different levels of maturity due to different degrees of retardation, consequently increasing variability and complexity for the total system, whereas each idiolect undergoes systematic developmental stages albeit retarded, decreasing eventually structural (and stylistic) profusion. Therefore, a dying language mirrors the successive stages of ontogenesis. (Historical linguistics, language acquisition, language death, language contact, bilingualism, sociolinguistics)

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , June 1989 , pp. 235 - 255
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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