Zombie Linguists

Perley, B. C. (2012). Zombie linguistics: Experts, endangered languages and the curse of undead voices. Anthropological Forum, 22(2), 133-149.

WHAT AM I READING TODAY?

This article has great appeal, first it is attention grabbing!  Zombie Linguists!! Who are they, what are they, what does it mean? Here's a quick summary. Since beginning my study and research of endangered languages and technology, I've been reading quite a bit of research and this is by far the most creative and with such a fresh look at the revitilization and maintenance efforts taking place today worldwide. The goal of the "expert linguists" is to keep the languages from dying, becoming moribund; Once the last speaker of a language dies what happens? It usually follows there is someone there to record with video or audio the language. The language is saved, hooray!! However, with that being said, Perley (2012) tells us those voices are voices of the undead, nothing more than recordings, zombies if you will. Here are my thoughts, languages are "living"; a language may grow and evolve over time. For example, look at English, and how it has changed in just the past ten or so years. Computer talk, slang, etc. words we never knew existed are now in the dictionary and have found their way into our every day vernacular. You can't take a language to a taxadermists and stuff it to preserve it. As research tells us a language must be saved and kept alive by the community shareholders who have a vested interrest in maintaining it. Once the dominant language has taken over and there is no longer any need to use the language in school, or local governments, the culture and identity go as well. Technology is seen as a hopeful promise to preserve, revitalize, and maintain American Indian languages, although the technology is slow in coming to many tribes, not only here in Oklahoma, but also Hawaii (but they are doing a wonderful job there in the past few years.), but also Mongolia, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.