2021/01/01 by Bruce Connell, David Zeitlyn, Sascha Griffiths +2 · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Computer Science · #Multilingual Education and Policy #Linguistic Variation and Morphology #Linguistic Studies and Language Acquisition
paper · pdf · doi:10.1515/opli-2021-0011
openalex publication_date 2021/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Abstract As a contribution to the more general discussion on causes of language endangerment and death, we describe the language ecologies of four related languages (Bà Mambila [mzk]/[mcu], Sombә (Somyev or Kila) [kgt], Oumyari Wawa [www], Njanga (Kwanja) [knp]) of the Cameroon-Nigeria borderland to reach an understanding of the factors and circumstances that have brought two of these languages, Sombә and Njanga, to the brink of extinction; a third, Oumyari, is unstable/eroded, while Bà Mambila is stable. Other related languages of the area, also endangered and in one case extinct, fit into our discussion, though with less focus. We argue that an understanding of the language ecology of a region (or of a given language) leads to an understanding of the vitality of a language. Language ecology seen as a multilayered phenomenon can help explain why the four languages of our case studies have different degrees of vitality. This has implications for how language change is conceptualised: we see multilingualism and change (sometimes including extinction) as normative.