Revitalizing Endangered Languages

The modern era of globalization has threatened the existence of thousands of languages, largely due to pressure to speak the language of more powerful groups. There are many cases where individuals make this choice voluntarily, albeit with forceful societal influence. In countries with regular immigration like the United States, many first-wave immigrants forgo passing on their native language to their children to more easily assimilate into the new culture. Additionally, in countries with linguistic diversity such as Indonesia that have made efforts to unify the country around a sole lingua franca, many individuals choose to adopt this lingua franca while forgoing their native language.  

However, even more languages are becoming endangered involuntarily. A recent global history consisting of colonialism, nationalism, and genocide has effectively wiped a great number of languages off the face of the Earth, while leaving thousands endangered and rapidly dying. The international affairs community should be concerned about this issue because this loss uproots cultures and communities while further marginalizing minority populations. These consequences can massively impact international politics, economics, and law at an unprecedented rate. Despite these consequences, policy makers in international affairs pay little attention to the topic of endangered languages. Nearly all of the work on endangered language revitalization currently occurs at the grassroots level; however, it can greatly benefit from assistance by policy makers such as government officials. So what can policy makers in international affairs do to revitalize these endangered languages?

This article discusses two successful bottom-up, grassroots revitalization efforts that have demonstrated success in increasing the number of speakers of their respective languages. The first is the development of early childhood immersion programs known as “language nests” for the Maori language in New Zealand, whose success has spurred the development of similar programs. The second is the development of online courses for various endangered languages on the popular language-learning app, Duolingo. In addition, I will introduce recommendations for how policy makers can replicate their success while avoiding potential pitfalls that may appear. Both revitalization efforts have made major strides overall, however they have encountered various hurdles of note including a lack of available resources to support language learning.

Maori “Language Nests”

The Maori language, once the lingua franca of New Zealand even for decades after European settlers arrived, began to decline once European settlers formed the majority of the country’s population. Both formal pressure in schools and informal pressure from a rapidly modernizing country led to Maori quickly fading into an endangered language with less than 100,000 fluent speakers. In the mid-twentieth century, Maori communities concerned about the rapid decline of their language developed a new initiative known as Te Kohanga Reo. This initiative allowed for Maori children to enter a total immersion Maori language program from early childhood that would allow the next Maori generation to gain fluency. Overall, the program has increased the number of Maori speakers to a critical point considered to be successful in terms of language revitalization.

The success of Te Kohanga Reo has deeply impacted New Zealand and other communities working on endangered language revitalization efforts. First, the increased attention to the Maori language brought from this novel concept has attracted Google to launch a Maori version of its website and Disney to begin translating its films into the language. Second, a large number of non-Maori individuals in New Zealand have begun learning the language—New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, has even stated that her daughter will be raised as a bilingual speaker of English and Maori. Third, the concept of the “language nest” has inspired other communities that speak endangered languages to develop language nests of their own, including the state-owned First Peoples’ Cultural Council in Canada.

However, despite the successful approach of the “language nests,” the Maori language faces significant complications. The actual number of fluent speakers among Maori individuals is actually continuing to decline with only one in five native Maori being able to speak the language today despite the program’s initial gains. Much of this is likely due to unintentional interference from the country’s white majority. One major issue is that Maori teachers may be spread too thin by primarily teaching the Maori language to white New Zealanders who are unlikely to pass the language onto their children. Another is the disconnect that has formed regarding national Maori language policy between the country’s white population and the Maori. Given this, if policy makers were to develop a similar “language nest” outside of New Zealand, they must prioritize early childhood education for the minority group and make sure to avoid overpowering the voices of the group they intended to assist.

Duolingo’s Endangered Language Courses

Duolingo was first launched in 2012 with a high level of success and quickly became one of the world’s leading language learning applications. Many of the language courses were developed by volunteers as part of Duolingo’s Incubator program including a number of endangered languages such as Hawaiian, Navajo, Scottish Gaelic, and Yiddish. Through this process, Duolingo has garnered significant attention for its work in endangered language preservation and has allowed hundreds of thousands of individuals to actively learn these languages. One notable example is the rapid revitalization of the Irish language with the number of Irish learners on Duolingo exceeding three million, for which Duolingo was publicly thanked by the President of Ireland. 

Despite these major and unprecedented successes, there are some limitations to this language revitalization approach. The first is that Duolingo itself serves as more of a jumpstart to a new language rather than a tool to achieve language fluency. While Duolingo has provided this initial step of outreach by developing a solid base of learners for various endangered languages, the company offers few outlets to gain further proficiency once a user finishes a course. The second is that Duolingo has recently decided to end its volunteer-based Incubator program which oversaw this initial rise of individuals dedicated to developing courses for endangered languages. Given this, a great next step would be for community-based NGOs that work on endangered language education to attempt developing partnerships with Duolingo. Beyond mere course development via the Incubator program, community-based NGOs can provide additional resources for students who have completed endangered language courses on the platform. 

Conclusion

In sum, there are many strong revitalization efforts for endangered languages that merit the attention of the international affairs community. New Zealand’s “language nests” and Duolingo’s endangered language courses have made major strides in increasing the number of speakers of the languages they teach, however they possess flaws that policy makers must avoid. In New Zealand’s case, revitalization for the Maori language requires a concerted effort towards Maori people, as they are the most likely to pass on the language to the next generation. For Duolingo’s case, revitalization should occur by connecting interested individuals with additional resources following their completion of Duolingo courses. Altogether, policy makers can ascertain key methods to replicate the success of these current approaches with minor tweaks and a clear focus on the groups among whom these endangered languages were/are spoken.