Language Politics and Language Survival: Yiddish among the haredim in post-war Britain outlines the history and development of the Yiddish language as it is used among Ultra-Orthodox Jews in contemporary Britain. The language policies of these communities are analysed and placed within the greater socio-historical and religious context of rabbinic justifications for the use of Jewish languages, and of Yiddish in particular. Reasons for the general abandonment of Yiddish outside of the haredi world are also summarized and placed in juxtaposition with the Yiddish language of loyalty of the haredim. Yiddish language and corpus planning in haredi schools is analysed using communal documents and newspaper articles, educational assessments of Jewish schools compiled by Her Majesty's Inspectors, a number of interviews with communal educators, tape recordings of lessons given in Yiddish, and observations made during my own visits to haredi educational institutions. A significant part of this book is dedicated to the analysis of the Yiddish language itself as it is currently used in Britain. The analysis of spoken Yiddish is based on recordings of speech patterns collected in the course of field work in haredi schools in London and Manchester and focuses primarily on dialectal usage based on religious sect and the geographic region within Britain. A brief sociological analysis of haredi literature in Yiddish is provided in order to demonstrate the ideological function of Yiddish language texts in contemporary Britain, and in the haredi world in general. The primary materials used for this are texts produced by, and published within, the haredi communities of Britain.

This book makes an important contribution to the growing debate on linguistic human rights. By bringing together research on language rights, language 'survival' and minority language planning in specific contexts from Africa, Asia, Central and North America and Europe, it aims to illustrate how current conceptualizations of language rights can sometimes stand in the way of their successful realization. The book considers such theoretical and practical issues as: the constitution of ethnic identities and their links with language; relations between language, politics and power; language ecology and revitalization movements; the dominance of particular models of language, their appropriateness to particular contexts and their relationship to speakers' own perceptions. It is targeted towards a wide readership in the fields of sociology, sociolinguistics and anthropology, language rights law, and language policy and planning.

This volume explores the main challenges facing 7 well-established medium-sized language communities with regard to their survival and development at the beginning of the 21st century. The book provides an in-depth analysis of each case, and reaches conclusions that are relevant to other cases and to language policy theory in general.

The Southwest Pacific from Southern China through Indonesia, Australia and the Pacific Islands constitutes the richest linguistic region of the world. That rich resource cannot be taken for granted. Some of its languages have already been lost; many more are under threat. The challenge is to describe the languages that exist today and to adopt policies that will support their maintenance.

Language is Politics discusses power relations between languages in the world, with a particular focus on English. Even though English is the most widely spoken and the most powerful language worldwide, it is not the lingua franca it is often supposed to be. The basic tenet of this book is that languages do not exist in the natural world; they are artefacts made by humans. The book debunks some common myths about language and it suggests that we should be more modest in our assumptions, for instance concerning the linguistic uniqueness of our own species. The author argues in favour of an ecological or balanced approach to language. This approach sees humans and other animals as part of the larger ecosystems that life depends on. As in nature, diversity is crucial to the survival of languages. The current linguistic ecosystem is out of balance, and this book shows that education can help to restore the balance and cope with the challenges of a multilingual and multicultural world. With an ecological approach to language and a focus on narratives and personal language histories, this will be key reading for researchers and academics, as well as students of English language and linguistics.

Public school classrooms around the world have the power to shape and transform youth culture and identity. In this book, Mneesha Gellman examines how Indigenous high school students resist assimilation and assert their identities through access to Indigenous language classes in public schools. Drawing on ethnographic accounts, qualitative interviews, focus groups, and surveys, Gellman’s fieldwork examines and compares the experiences of students in Yurok language courses in Northern California and Zapotec courses in Oaxaca, Mexico. She contends that this access to Indigenous language instruction in secondary schooling serves as an arena for Indigenous students to develop their sense of identity and agency, and provides them tools and strategies for civic, social, and political participation, sometimes in unexpected ways. Showcasing young people’s voices, and those of their teachers and community members, in the fight for culturally relevant curricula and educational success, Gellman demonstrates how the Indigenous language classroom enables students to understand, articulate, and resist the systemic erasure and destruction of their culture embedded in state agendas and educational curricula. Access to Indigenous language education, she shows, has positive effects not only for Indigenous students, but for their non-Indigenous peers as well, enabling them to become allies in the struggle for Indigenous cultural survival. Through collaborative methodology that engages in research with, not on, Indigenous communities, Indigenous Language Politics in the Schoolroom explores what it means to be young, Indigenous, and working for social change in the twenty-first century.

"In A Will to Survive, Stephen Greymorning introduces students to the voices of the indigenous people they are studying, to get a real sense of what it means to live in today;s world as an indigenous person. Greymorning has compiled a much needed anthology which illustrates differing perspectives, past experiences, and present concerns. He has edited the contributions so that they are accessible for college-level students. The anthology combines timely, scholarly and personal stories in one cohesive volume. The book presents readers with the perspectives of 14 indigenous scholars, speaking with Indigenous political voices and writing about issues that impact them and their peoples from an insider;s view. The essays are organized in such a way as to blend language, culture, and identity, issues of great concern to Indigenous peoples, in order to bring a greater depth of understanding to readers interested in issues and challenges faced by indigenous people."--Pub. desc.