Language revival

Language revival is the revival, by governments, political authorities, or enthusiasts, to recover the spoken use of a language that is no longer spoken or learned at home. Language death is the process by which a language ceases to be used by the people who formerly spoke it. Language revival seeks to bring back a language that is dead or endangered.

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Perhaps the most celebrated example of successful language revival is the Hebrew language, which now exists as a living tongue in daily use in the state of Israel. Other official attempts to revive endangered languages, such as the promotion of the Irish language in the Republic of Ireland (see Gaelic Revival), have met with less success. Some other endangered languages that have been the subject of revivalist campaigns by enthusiasts or governments include:

Related Topics:
Hebrew language - Israel - Irish language - Republic of Ireland - Gaelic Revival

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• Cornish language
• Frisian language
• Manx language
• Provençal language
• Scottish Gaelic
• Lowland Scots
• Welsh
• Breton
• Latin

Often the organization reviving the language chooses a particular dialect, even standardizes one from several variants, and adds new forms, mainly modern vocabulary, through neologisms, extensions of meaning for old words, calques from sibling languages (Arabic for Modern Hebrew, Welsh for Manx), or plain borrowings from the modern international languages.

Related Topics:
Standardizes - Neologism - Calque

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Supporters of other variants can feel that the chosen form is not "the real one", and that the original purpose of the revival has been defeated.

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Language revival: Europe ►