More importantly, we need to be selective on the recording sources. Which are and which are not native tongue deserves serious consideration. There is a rule during selection: to record the speech of an elderly male in rural area is the best choice.
Besides education, dictionary compiling and tape recording, we could also resort to media. Take Welsh as an example, it is extremely precarious in the middle of the 20th century. Nonetheless, it stopped its decline by Welsh-language broadcasting and Welsh-medium schools. “It was against this backdrop that on 13 February 1962 Saunders Lewis addressed the nation in the BBC Radio Cymru Annual Lecture entitled Tynged yr Iaith(‘the Fate of the Nation’)” “the lecture led to widespread campaigning in an attempt to secure increased rights for Welsh and was catalytic in the creation of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg(‘the Welsh Language Society’), a pressure group whose efforts to bring the language issue into the public eye”.[12]
According to census figures, there is an increase in usage, particularly among youngsters. Perhaps other communities could learn from Welsh’s revitalization by turning to media.
We already made some achievements. “UNESCO’s Endangered Languages Project, the Foundation for Endangered Languages (established in the UK in 1995) and the Linguistic Society of America’s Committee on Endangered Languages and their Preservation are fostering research into the status of minority languages. Information is gradually becoming available on the internet…”
4.2 Obstacles
Although with the encouraging countermeasures, the practicing of them is with insurmountable difficulties.
Huge efforts should be taken into consideration, not merely economic input, but also time and a heart willing to give. Even with all these, reliable sources need to be out there. Or else, native tongues are not protected, on the contrary, are devastated. Technology is another obstacle. Last but not least, the never ending existence of imperialism is the last straw. Here are the details.
4.2.1 Unbearable Efforts
Saving languages is a competition with time. For reference, many endangered languages have only a few elderly speakers. “The bearers of the knowledge that scholars are interested in are also the sole remaining people who can pass forward the gift of language on a breath-to -breath basis to younger learners.”[13] When the final speaker disappeared, his language is declared with death sentence.
Even if elderly speakers are alive, the country is dedicated to revitalized indigenous languages, things can go wrong.
For example, in South Africa, government made official policies and committed to promote nation-building by the practice of multi-lingua in public life. Notwithstanding, the policy increased the situation of monolingual-English. Moreover, Afrikaans’ resentment for English grows. Here we see the huge effort put by government, but reality is brutal. We see the completely opposite result. What’s worse, we have no clue why it turned out be on the converse.
4.2.2 Unreliable Sources
For geographically adjacent areas, it’s hard to be sure those two speeches are actually the same, but just differ in accent; or seemingly identical, however, basically they are two languages. The spoken Chinese, with its eight varieties, has no unanimous opinion on it. Some would say the eight varieties are different languages for their mutually unintelligibility. On the other hand, some argue the eight varieties are best described as dialects of the same language for they share the same writing system. It may be even more complicated in isolated areas that are adjacent. Even when we are certain, to find reliable sources for educating proves to be hard. Linguists are more inclined to take the verbal speech from an elderly male in rural area as the native tongue. All the requirements add difficulty in finding reliable sources for education or recording.
4.2.3 Linguistic Imperialism’s Never-ending Existence
The third obstacle for revitalization is the forever existence of Linguistic Imperialism. We live in a world of inequality, between countries, political power, economic situation, and arms, between gender, race, class, income, and language. Inequality is the reason why Linguistic Imperialism happens, for the never disappearance of inequality so does linguistic imperialism. Hence, the substratum side will not get away from the jeopardy put by imperialism.
4.2.4 Internet and technology
Internet and technology have been blessings and taken all credits, whereas they caused trouble in languages. Take a look at the website, take a surfing on the internet, nearly 80 percent of them is in English. For countries who are not willing to be left behind, they encourage all citizens to learn English, integrate in education to study English, and strengthen the importance of it…Especially the elites, they tried everything to get reach of the latest information and technology, gradually and gradually, becomes masters of English, also their value systems and ideology are made suited to those of English culture. Therefore, elites are getting further and further to their native tongues.
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