Title

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

Authors

Richard Henne-Ochoa, Bucknell UniversityFollow
Richard Bauman

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

Link to Published Version

dx.doi.org/10.1111/jola.12083

DOI

10.1111/jola.12083

Recommended Citation

Henne-Ochoa, Richard and Bauman, Richard. "Who Is Responsible for Saving the Language? Performing Generation in the Face of Language Shift." Journal of Linguistic Anthropology (2015) : 128-149.