Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Language diversity in the USA
- 2 Language contact in the USA
- 3 Native American languages in the USA
- 4 Spanish in the USA
- 5 Chinese in the USA
- 6 Tagalog in the USA
- 7 French in the USA
- 8 Vietnamese in the USA
- 9 German in the USA
- 10 Korean in the USA
- 11 Russian in the USA
- 12 Italian in the USA
- 13 Arabic in the USA
- 14 Portuguese in the USA
- 15 Polish in the USA
- 16 Language policy in the USA
- Notes
- Media resources related to the top twelve non-English languages in the USA
- References
- Index
3 - Native American languages in the USA
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Language diversity in the USA
- 2 Language contact in the USA
- 3 Native American languages in the USA
- 4 Spanish in the USA
- 5 Chinese in the USA
- 6 Tagalog in the USA
- 7 French in the USA
- 8 Vietnamese in the USA
- 9 German in the USA
- 10 Korean in the USA
- 11 Russian in the USA
- 12 Italian in the USA
- 13 Arabic in the USA
- 14 Portuguese in the USA
- 15 Polish in the USA
- 16 Language policy in the USA
- Notes
- Media resources related to the top twelve non-English languages in the USA
- References
- Index
Summary
Introduction
Of 300 languages indigenous to what is now the USA, 175 are still spoken (Krauss 1998). The language with the most speakers – 178,000 in the 2000 Census – is Navajo but, as Table 3.1 shows, most Native American languages have many fewer speakers. More than a third have just a handful of elderly speakers. For example, Eyak, a language once spoken by people indigenous to what is now southern Alaska, lost its last speaker, Marie Smith Jones, in 2008. All Native American languages are endangered, as Native children are increasingly socialized in English. The causes of this are complex – a topic we will discuss later in this chapter. The consequences are grave, for, unlike speakers of languages spoken elsewhere in the world, Indigenous communities have no external pool of speakers from which to replenish their numbers. “The loss of the indigenous language is terminal: language death” (Warner 1999: 72). Given this situation, language revitalization is a significant goal in Native American communities throughout the USA.
Tribal sovereignty
Understanding Native American language issues requires understanding the unique legal and political status of Native peoples in the USA. The term “Native American” encompasses diverse American Indian tribes, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians who share a status as first peoples, with the right to exercise tribal sovereignty, which is the “right of a people to government, self-determination, and self-education,” including the right to linguistic and cultural expression according to local languages and norms (Lomawaima and McCarty 2006: 10).
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- Language Diversity in the USA , pp. 47 - 65Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010
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