Who Is Responsible for Saving the Language? Performing Generation in the Face of Language Shift

Publication Date

2015

Description

In the literature on language shift and revitalization, generations are defined a priori as existing social categories that are mapped onto sociolinguistic features. In contrast, we take a performance-based perspective and develop a view of generations as discursively constructed frameworks that are aligned with sociolinguistic and moral features that attend language retention and associated factors. Using this perspective and empirical data from a high school speech contest held in a language-shifting Lakota community where revitalization efforts are underway, we show how contestants and participants perceive and experience language loss and renewal.

Journal

Journal of Linguistic Anthropology

Volume

25

Issue

2

First Page

128

Last Page

149

Department

Education

DOI

10.1111/jola.12083

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