Language endangerment has been a concern for linguists and other academics ever since it was first denounced in According to Ruiz there are two types of language endangerment: an A-type, which refers to languages threatened with immediate shift or death, and a B-type, which refers to “threats that create changes in the roles and functions that language plays in social life, such that the cultural vitality of the group is diminished.” (2009, p. 47).
Moreover, Myers- Scotton (2002: 183) underlines that speakers may shift languages for two reasons. 1. They shift due to a shift in the balance of the instrumental and sentimental values associated with languages. 2. They may just drop the composite (matrix) language and shift to the dominant one. Myers-Scotton (2002: 180) also stresses that the factors promoting language attrition among individual speakers or community shift are of a social and psychological nature( Prescod and Fraser, 2008).
This posits that there are different stages in the process of language change that can take a language, due to factors as diverse as migration, disease, or natural disasters, or to the imposition or gradual implementation of a colonizer’s language, from incorporating language loans to the disuse of the native or indigenous language.
Without disregarding the creative use of language, the need to name new experiences such as social networking, innovations or technological gadgets and the migratory effects brought about by the globalization effect, the change languages go through can lead to their demise.
Likewise, it cannot be ignored that speakers of heritage languages as well as those of endangered languages may reflect perceptions and attitudes that can bring about language activism, revitalization efforts and even awakening processes to maintain their languages ‘alive’ to some degree.
This web page intends to be a repository of information, projects and research about Caribbean endangered and indigenous languages. Using a bilingual (Spanish-English) approach we intend to offer researchers, students of linguistics and all interested readers the materials and information here provided.
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Finally , InDiLPE del Caribe, just as a language is an ongoing, live project which will grow, evolve and improve as we receive contributions from our visitors and collaborators. Our assessment of the languages is based on different sources and can be subject to analysis. Thank you for your support.