What is Language Revitalization?

There are more than 7,000 languages spoken in the world today, but about half of them are in danger of being extinguished. Many people are working to save their languages, and help them thrive: this work is called language revitalization.

Language revitalization is a broad name for many kinds of activities to support the continued use and transmission of a language. Teaching a language to children, having gatherings for people to speak the language together, promoting the language in public places and signs, creating technology to use the language online - these are all examples of language revitalization.

All of these things are about breathing life into a language - helping it live, making it visible, valued, and used. Revitalization is about helping people use the language, more often, in more parts of their life.

Language revitalization is also about slowing, stopping, or reversing language loss. If your language is facing challenges to its vitality, language revitalization aims to reduce or overcome those challenges. 

You may also have seen terms like “language revival,” “language reclamation,” “language maintenance,” and more. There are many complex meanings in each of these terms, but they all include the idea of strengthening your language - making sure it can be used by current and future generations, in many areas of life. 

💡 Here at ELP, we’re using the word “revitalization” as a general term for all of these different ideas.

Why is language revitalization so important?

The importance of language to you, your family, and your community is unique to you. People around the world, in many different contexts, are also involved in language revitalization efforts for many different reasons. 

For many people, language revitalization is about restoring connections and relationships. Language connects people to their families, their ancestors and future generations, their lands, their communities, their identities, their worldviews, and their cultures. Revitalizing or reclaiming languages can be an important part of reconnecting with one’s community, or keeping relationships strong. Especially in contexts where languages were intentionally taken away from people and communities in order to break family and community ties, revitalizing languages is a way to heal these relationships. 

Language revitalization is also important because it supports people’s mental, physical, and emotional health. Research has shown that Indigenous language revitalization or maintenance is linked to better mental health, lower suicide rates, prevention of diabetes, better dental health, greater overall well-being, and much more. Language revitalization can literally save lives. 

Finally, language revitalization is an issue of human rights. The UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples states very clearly that Indigenous Peoples have the right to use, transmit, and revitalize their languages. Language oppression - taking people’s languages away from them through force, coercion, assimilation, or pressure - is a grave violation of human rights, and that should concern us all. Language revitalization is one path towards individual and collective justice and repairing these violations of language rights.

This short answer can’t possibly cover all the reasons this work is so important, so we invite you to explore the learning resources and stories about language revitalization on the ELP website, and see what makes sense to you and your particular context.

I’m Worried About My Language. Where Should I Start?

You may be here because you are concerned about your language. Maybe you’ve noticed that many children can’t speak your language. Maybe people use the language less than they used to, or there are obstacles to using your language in some parts of your life.

Language revitalization includes a lot of different ways to strengthen your language. What will work best depends on your community, the current situation of your language, your goals, and the resources available to you. Language revitalization is a journey - your needs and plans may change over time, and it’s important to be flexible and open-minded. 

Each community and each context is different - what works for one community, or for one language, may not work for others. For that reason, it’s important to come up with revitalization plans that make sense for you, your language, and your community. 

In ELP's Learning and Help Center, you will find information about many different paths for language revitalization. Your language community should choose which paths you follow! These are just suggestions and descriptions of some of the options available to you. 

This is a learning resource - it’s not meant to be prescriptive (telling you what to do, or not do). You and your community are the experts on your language, and you get to decide how you want to revitalize it! 

Here you can find information that might help you choose your revitalization path. 

First Step: Where is Our Language Now? 

A good place to start is by thinking about what is happening with your language right now. On your own, or with other people in your community, you can think about questions like:

• How many people speak/sign our language? Has this number grown, or gotten smaller, in recent years? Do most people in our community understand or use our language? Is it different in different villages, towns, or regions?
• What age groups use our language? Are children learning it? Is it mostly Elders or older people who use the language these days?
• What kind of support do we currently have for our language? Do we have books, recordings, or written materials? Are there schools or programs that already teach our language? Are there people willing to work to support our language?
• What kinds of laws or policies affect our language? Are there any laws about using, teaching, or promoting our language? What is the status of our language rights, both on paper and in reality?
• What might be causing language loss? What kinds of challenges is our language community facing, and why? What kinds of history, trauma, social issues, economic pressures, or other things might be affecting our language? 
• How do people in our community feel about our language? What are people most interested in, or worried about, with our language? What do people think and feel about language loss and language revitalization?
• Do we have any funding? Do we need funding, and if so, what do we need it for? What can we do without external funding (or what can we achieve in the “do-it-yourself” style)? Where could we get funding, how should we pursue it, and how would we use it?

You might check your language’s page on the ELP website to see what information has been published about these questions. (If the information about your language is old, incorrect, or incomplete, please contact us - we would love to work with you to fix it!)

Second Step: What Are Our Goals? 

To decide which path to take, you will need to decide where you want to go - what your goals are for your language. 

We encourage you to visit the First Peoples’ Cultural Council’s Language Planning Toolkit! It will help you explore many of these questions, and develop a good plan for your language revitalization journey. (This toolkit was created for First Nations communities in British Columbia, Canada, but it can be useful to people in many parts of the world.)

You might think about questions like:

• What is most urgent? Are there Elders we could work with, and record their knowledge while it is still possible? Are there words or knowledge we need to record before they are forgotten? 
• Who could we work with? Who do we already have working relationships with? Are there dedicated language champions in our community, and how can we get in touch with them? Do we have partners like community organizations, schools, other Nations or communities, universities, etc.?
• Do we want to teach the language to people inside our community? People outside our community? Children? Youth? Adults? Do we want to train teachers from our community? Are there other communities we could build networks with who have speakers, teachers, resources or materials, etc?
• Do we want to create materials in the language? What kind? Books, videos, music recordings, websites or apps, cartoons, or other things?
• What kinds of knowledge and culture are most important to revitalize with our language? What are the interests and passions of the people we are working with? 
• What do we hope our language situation will be like in five years? 10 years? 50 years? What are our visions, goals, and dreams for our language?
• What are some things we would consider “success” in our revitalization work?

Next Step: What Paths Can Help Us Meet Our Goals? 

Once you know where you are, and where you want to go, you will need to develop a plan to get there. There are many possible paths for language revitalization! 

We encourage you to browse through the information in this Learning Center, learn from other communities’ stories, and see if any of these ideas resonate with you. As you are choosing a path, think about your own skills, interests, and passions - no matter who you are, you have many strengths that can contribute to your language revitalization work. 

If you still have questions after exploring these materials, you are not alone! You can talk with other language champions in the discussion forums, or contact the ELP Revitalization Mentors. 

Here are a few basic suggestions for where to start:

If there are only a few Elders or older people who know/use your language:

Your work is very urgent. Don’t wait - start as soon as possible! Some paths which might fit your needs are:

• Mentor-Apprentice programs: one-on-one partnerships between an adult language learner and a fluent speaker, usually an Elder, to develop language ability quickly. 
• Language documentation: making recordings of your language, so that you have materials to learn from if someday there are no longer any living speakers.
• Language nests: programs for babies and very young children to grow up around the language. If the Elders who know the language are in good health, and enjoy being around children, they can be part of a language nest. 
• Also see FPCC’s Working With Elders handbook for more guidance.

If lots of adults know/use your language, but not children: 

You may want to focus on helping children learn your language. There are lots of ways to do this:

• Language nests: programs for babies and very young children to grow up around the language. If there are lots of adults who know/use the language, they can be teachers,  caregivers, and support people in a language nest. 
• Language immersion education: schools or extracurricular activities that use only the language, helping children and/or adults learn the language through constant exposure. 
• Language learning camps: gatherings to learn language for several days or weeks, often outdoors or on the land, with language learning through activities and immersion. 

If children are learning the language (for example, through school), but most adults in the community do not know the language: 

You may want to focus on supporting this “missing generation.” By increasing their own language knowledge, adults can support children to "stay in the language" outside of their nest/caregiving, early childhood program, or immersion school. You might consider: 

• Adult immersion education: create programs for adults to learn the language through immersion, so they can support the language learning of their children, nieces and nephews, neighbors, students, or other children in the community. 
• Making your home a space for language: create opportunities for language learning in the home, and learn everyday language for use in the home. For example, you can designate certain rooms as language-only zones, label household items in your language, or invite someone who knows the language well to stay in your home for periods of time, so everyone can use the language together in the home. 
• Collaboration with children’s learning programs: create opportunities for adults to spend time in the language alongside children who are learning. For example, adults can be support people in language nests, classrooms, camps, or extracurricular activities. 

If people of most ages in your community speak (or sign) your language:

If most people know the language, but they don't have enough opportunities to use it, or if you just want to make sure people keep using your language, you may want to focus on language maintenance - keeping the language strong and helping it flourish. Some ways to do this include:

• Creating language resources: creating videos, digital tools, books, and other resources that make it easier to use a language in all parts of life. 
• Mother-tongue education: making it possible for children to attend school in their own language(s). 
• Awareness and promotion: creating pride and community interest in the language, and encouraging people to continue using it. 
• Activities and gatherings in the language: making spaces or events where everyone can use the language together on a regular basis. 

In all of this work, please keep yourself safe and well. 

Sometimes, language revitalization can be socially and politically controversial, or even dangerous. The work of language revitalization can also be emotionally and psychologically challenging. You may face backlash of different kinds. Balance the important work of keeping your language strong with what you need to do to keep yourself, your family, and your community safe and healthy. 

You may find The Wolf Who Walks in Two Worlds, a self-reflection workbook for language revitalization practitioners, helpful in maintaining emotional wellness, balance, and clarity. 

But you will also find that language revitalization can nourish you - often, language revitalizes people, in addition to people revitalizing their language. Language revitalization is linked to greater mental and physical health and community well-being. We hope this work will bring joy, meaning, and connection to you and your community. 

ᎢᏁᎾ! Taghden! Api kiyna'n! Урагшаа! 와랑차랑! ¡Ko’one’ex! Let’s go!