Language Endangerment in Childhood

Abstract

Language endangerment by definition excludes children and childhood, as the most endangered languages are those which are no longer being used, spoken, or acquired by the youngest generations. By and large, research in this area reflects this exclusion by focusing primarily on the documentation of grammatical knowledge elicited from the oldest speakers for storage in archives (what Maliseet anthropologist Bernard Perley has termed “zombie linguistics”). However, when approached from a language socialization orientation, the seeming paradox of language endangerment in childhood dissolves. Investigations of endangered languages in childhood reveal surprisingly vibrant and complicated amalgams of linguistic practices, socializing discourses, and cultural ideologies. They underscore the need to apply mixed methods to understanding processes of language endangerment. They challenge the grammatical boundedness of languages as (transparently) discrete objects. They recognize the vitalities emergent from situations of aggressive contact. Thus, attention to children and childhood not only calls into question the privileged rhetoric of zombie linguistics but also accentuates and challenges the socially constructed dimensions of languages and linguistic boundaries.