Linguistic ecology or language ecology is the study of how languages interact with each other and the places they are spoken in, and frequently argues for the preservation of
endangered language
An endangered language or moribund language is a language that is at risk of disappearing as its speakers die out or shift to speaking other languages. Language loss occurs when the language has no more native speakers and becomes a " dead langua ...
s as an analogy of the preservation of
biological species
A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of classification an ...
.
The term was first used in an article on the "language situation" in Arizona (Voegelin, Voegelin and Schutz, 1967). It was taken up by
Einar Haugen
Einar Ingvald Haugen (; April 19, 1906 – June 20, 1994) was an American linguist and writer known for his influential work in American sociolinguistics
and Norwegian-American studies, including Old Norse studies.
Haugen was a professor at ...
, who pioneered a form of
linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
which used the metaphor of an ecosystem to describe the relationships among the diverse forms of language found in the world, and the groups of people who speak them.
Description
Linguistic ecology is represented by the journal ''Language Ecology'', which describes the field as follows:
Linguistic ecology has sometimes been described as a form of ecolinguistics (e.g., in Fill and Mühlhäusler). However, some studies in language ecology refer only to language within a social context and disregard the ecological context of the living ecosystems and physical environment that life depends on, so could be considered to be more sociolinguistic in nature.
Tove Skutnabb-Kangas and David Harmon (2018) write that "There has been a tendency of many sociolinguists to pay only lip service to the literal sense of ‘ecology’ and to focus only on social concerns. They see the ‘eco-’ in ecolinguistics/language ecology as a relationship within and between various languages, speakers of these languages and their sociocultural and economic contexts.". Other studies, however, are relevant to ecolinguistics because they describe the association of high
linguistic diversity
Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing. Human language is ch ...
with high
biological diversity
Biodiversity is the variability of life on Earth. It can be measured on various levels. There is for example genetic variability, species diversity, ecosystem diversity and phylogenetic diversity. Diversity is not distributed evenly on Eart ...
(see Bastardas-Boada 2002). The relationship between linguistic diversity and biodiversity is claimed to arise since local ecological knowledge is built into local language varieties and threatened if the local language is threatened by a more dominant language (see Skutnabb-Kangas and Harmon 2017, Mühlhäusler 1995).
See also
*
Language geography
Language geography is the branch of human geography that studies the geographic distribution of language(s) or its constituent elements. Linguistic geography can also refer to studies of how people talk about the landscape. For example, toponym ...
*
Language policy
Language policy is both an interdisciplinary academic field and implementation of ideas about language use.
Some scholars such as Joshua Fishman and Ofelia García consider it as part of sociolinguistics. On the other hand, other scholars such as ...
*
Linguistic rights
Linguistic rights are the human rights, human and civil rights concerning the individual and collective right to choose the language or languages for communication in a private or public atmosphere. Other parameters for analyzing linguistic right ...
*
Sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics is the descriptive, scientific study of how language is shaped by, and used differently within, any given society. The field largely looks at how a language changes between distinct social groups, as well as how it varies unde ...
References
Literature
*Bastardas-Boada, Albert (1996
''Ecologia de les llengües. Medi, contactes i dinàmica sociolingüística'' Barcelona: Proa. [English translation
Ecology of languages. Sociolinguistic environment, contacts and dynamics in Bastardas-Boada, A. (2019)
''From language shift to language revitalization and sustainability. A complexity approach to linguistic ecology'' Barcelona: Edicions de la Universitat de Barcelona].
*Bastardas-Boada, Albert (2002
"Biological and linguistic diversity: Transdisciplinary explorations for a socioecology of languages"Diverscité langues, vol. VII.
*Bastardas-Boada, Albert (2002)
The Ecological perspective: Benefits and risks for Sociolinguistics and Language Policy and Planning, in: Fill, Alwin, Hermine Penz, & W. Trampe (eds.), ''Colourful Green Ideas''. Berna: Peter Lang, pp. 77–88.
*Bastardas-Boada, Albert (2007
"Linguistic sustainability for a multilingual humanity"''Glossa. An Interdisciplinary Journal'' vol. 2, num. 2.
*Bastardas-Boada, Albert (2017)
“The ecology of language contact: Minority and majority languages” in: Alwin F. Fill, Hermine Penz (eds.), ''The Routledge Handbook of Ecolinguistics'', p. 26-39.
*Calvet, Jean-Louis (1999) Pour une écologie des langues du monde. Plon
*Fill, A. and Mühlhäusler, P., 2001. Ecolinguistics Reader: Language, Ecology and Environment. Bloomsbury Publishing.
*Hornberger, N.H., & Hult, F.M. (2008). Ecological language education policy. In B. Spolsky & F.M. Hult (Eds.), ''Handbook of educational linguistics'' (pp. 280-296). Malden, MA: Blackwell.
*Hult, F.M. (2009). Language ecology and linguistic landscape analysis. In E. Shohamy & D. Gorter (Eds.), ''Linguistic landscape: Expanding the scenery'' (pp. 88-104). London: Routledge.
*Hult, F.M. (2010). Analysis of language policy discourses across the scales of space and time. ''International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 202'', 7-24.
*Hult, F.M. (2012). Ecology and multilingual education. In C. Chapelle (Gen. Ed.), ''Encyclopedia of applied linguistics'' (Vol. 3, pp. 1835-1840). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
*Language Ecology 201
*Mühlhäusler, Peter (1995) Linguistic Ecology; Language Change and Linguistic Imperialism in the Pacific Rim. London: Routledge.
*{{cite web , author-link1=José María Sánchez Carrión , last1=Sánchez Carrión , first1=José María , date=1985 , url=http://www.eusko-ikaskuntza.org/en/publicaciones/colecciones/cuadernos/articulo.php?o=10317 , title=La nueva sociolingüistica y la ecología de las lenguas , publisher=Donostia-San Sebastián , website=Eusko Ikaskuntza , url-status=dead , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307031139/http://www.eusko-ikaskuntza.org/en/publicaciones/colecciones/cuadernos/articulo.php?o=10317 , archive-date= Mar 7, 2016
Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove and David Harmon (2017) Biological Diversity and Language Diversity. In Fill and Penz (eds) Routledge Handbook of Ecolinguistics. London Routledge.
*Steffensen, Sune Vork (2007): "Language, Ecology and Society: An introduction to Dialectical Linguistics". In: Bang, Jørgen Christian and Jørgen Døør (eds) Language, Ecology and Society. A Dialectical Approach. Edited by Sune Vork Steffensen and Joshua Nash. London: Continuum. Pp. 3–31.
*C.F. Voegelin, F. M. Voegelin and Noel W. Schutz, Jr. The language situation in Arizona as part of the Southwest culture area" in Studies in Southwestern Ethnolinguistics: Meaning and history in the languages of the American Southwest, ed. by Dell Hymes and William E. Bittle, 403–51, 1967. The Hague: Mouton.
Sociolinguistics
Human communication
Linguistics