[Foundation-l] A simple question on languages.

[Mark Williamson]

Exactly. No matter how much a language is supported, universal
bilingualism generally results in language shift.

If 20% of a society remains monolingual, that may be sufficient to
ensure that the other 80% remains bilingual, depending on the social
position of that 20% and how they are distributed geographically.

Language shift is something that can be observed in many countries -
Bhutan is seeing many of its children failing Dzongkha classes and
preferring English consistently, for example, despite the official
support given to the language.

As long as Wales is part of the United Kingdom, maintaining a
bilingual population will be a challenge.

Mark

On 29/01/2008, geni <geniice at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 29/01/2008, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On 29/01/2008, Mark Williamson <node.ue at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > To some extent. However, long-term maintenance of bilingualism at all
> > > levels of a society is rare, and in those situations where it can be
> > > found, one language can still be said to be "dying", for example Welsh
> > > and English.
> >
> >
> > I'd certainly disagree in the case of Welsh. The official promotion of
> > it in schools means a generation of Welsh kids is growing up speaking
> > it as well as they do English.
>
> And yet despite the amounts spent most well default to English. Remove
> the props and welsh would have only very limited use within a couple
> of decades.
> --
> geni
>
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