The document discusses language revitalization and summarizes how Sanskrit, as an example of a "dead language", has undergone aspects of revitalization such as increased use through expansion into new domains like the internet. It provides background on Sanskrit's historical importance and influence on other languages as well as current state efforts and recognition to promote the language.

1. A look at the circumstances in which an
apparently “dead language” can come
to life again, with specific reference to
Sanskrit
Language Revitalization

2. What is language revitalization?
Language
renewal
Language Language Language
Shift Reversal Revival renewal

3. LANGUAGE REVITALIZATION IS THE ATTEMPT TO
ADD NEW LINGUISTIC FORMS OR SOCIAL
FUNCTIONS TO AN EMBATTLED MINORITY
LANGUAGE WITH THE AIM OF INCREASING ITS
USES OR USERS. MORE SPECIFICALLY,
LANGUAGE REVITALIZATION ENCOMPASSES
EFFORTS WHICH MIGHT TARGET THE LANGUAGE
STRUCTURE, THE USES OF THE LANGUAGE, AS
WELL AS THE USERS OD THE LANGUAGE.
LANGUAGE REVITALIZATION MIGHT ENTAIL
CORPUS PLANNING, STATUS PLANNING, AS WELL
AS ACQUISITION PLANNING (KING, 23)
Language shift reversal, language revival and language renewal are concepts often
associated with language revitalization

4. OR ―IMPARTING NEW VIGOR TO A LANGUAGE STILL IN
LIMITED USE, MOST COMMONLY BY INCREASED USE
THROUGH EXPANSION OF DOMAINS.‖ (PAULSON ET AL.,
1993: 276)
OR ――THE RESTORATION OF VITALITY TO A LANGUAGE
THAT HAD LOST OR WAS LOSING THIS ATTRIBUTE WHICH
MAY ADD BOTH NEW SPEAKERS AND NEW FUNCTION,
SPREADING THE LANGUAGE TO BABIES AND YOUNG
CHILDREN WHO BECOME ITS NATIVE SPEAKERS… AT THE
SAME TIME IT ADDS THE FUNCTIONS ASSOCIATED WITH
THE DOMAIN OF HOME AND FAMILY, RESULTING IN
VARIOUS KINDS OF INFORMAL AND INTIMATE LANGUAGE
USE AND THE RELATED EMOTIONAL ASSOCIATIONS OF
THE LANGUAGE. (SPOLSKY, 1995:178)

5. LANGUAGE PLANNING : A
BRIEF REVIEW AS IT RELATES
TO LANGUAGE
REVITALIZATION
Corpus planning, status planning and acquisition planning

6. CORPUS PLANNING IS DEFINES AS
THOSE ASPECTS OF LANGUAGE
PLANNING WHICH ARE PRIMARILY
LINGUISTIC AND HENCE INTERNAL
TO THE LANGUAGE .
Examples are modernization of the lexicon, or graphization of a previously
unwritten language. ( It is a linguistic system)

7. STATUS PLANNING IS DEFINED
AS THOSE ASPECTS OF
LANGUAGE PLANNING WHICH
REFLECT PRIMARILY SOCIAL
ISSUES AND CONCERNS HENCE
ARE EXTERNAL TO THE
LANGUAGE.
For example offilization of a language or its promotion as an international
language (uses)

8. ACQUISITION PLANNING EFFORTS
TARGET THE POTENTIAL OR
ACTUAL USERS OF A LANGUAGE,
INCLUDING EFFORTS TO INFLUENCE
THE ALLOCATION OF USERS OR THE
DISTRIBUTION OF LANGUAGES,
MOST OFTEN THROUGH THE
CREATION OF IMPROVEMENT OF
OPPORTUNITIES OR INCENTIVES TO
LEARN THEM (HORNBERGER, 1994:
79)
Examples of acquisition planning are through a language’s promotion in
school mass media or work spheres.

9. Fishman’s Language Shift Reversal of LSR
King (25) explains Fishman’s Reversing
Language shift saying that it focuses o
reinstating the language in the home, as
the primary language of parent child
communication. He further explains that
Fishman emphasized all efforts which
fall short of this critical aim are short
term gains which merely bide time
before the inevitable loss of the
language. To Fishman, King explains,
the only lasting and significant gain is
reinstatement of mother tongue
transition of the language. King
concludes that though the expansion of
the use of the language to new domains
might e an important aspect of the
process of RLS, the primary and critical
aim is reinstatement of home and family
transmission.

10. Language Renewal and Language Revival
Language revival is ―The act of
reviving a language that was no longer
used by any native speakers (Paulson
et al., 1993:279)
Language renewal is ―An organized
adult effort to ensure that at least some
members of a group whose traditional
language has a steady declining
number of speakers will continue to
use the language and will promote its
being learned by others in the group
(Otto, 1982; in Brandt & Ayoungman,
1989:43)

11. According to UNESCO, ―
It is estimated that, if nothing is done, half of 6000 plus languages spoken
today will disappear by the end of this century. With the disappearance of
unwritten and undocumented languages, humanity would lose not only a
cultural wealth but also important ancestral knowledge embedded, in
particular, in indigenous languages.‖
As such their Endangered Languages Programme is to support communities,
experts and governments by producing, coordinating and disseminating :
tools for monitoring, advocacy, and assessment of status and
trends in linguistic diversity,
services such as policy advice, technical expertise and
training, good practices and a platform
for exchange and transfer of skills.

12. Sanskrit
According to the Ethnologue, Sanskrit is a language
of India, classified as an Indo- European, Indo-
Iranian or Indo-Aryan language. Its literacy rate in
L1 is 60%to 100% and its literacy rate in L3 is 15%-
25%. Its writing system is Sharada Script.
According to Sir William Jones, a scholar of ancient India, "The Sanskrit language is of a
wonderful structure, more perfect than Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely
refined than either"

13. Interesting theory on the language
Uma Saini, Senior Lecturer at the Centre of language education at the Johns
Hopkins University quotes an interview of Dr. Dean Brown who expresses that
Sanskrit in fact is the mother of all European languages and the roots of many
English words can be traced to Samskritam.
Professor Dean Brown is an eminent Theoretical Physicist and Sanskrit
Scholar, who has recently translated theUpanishads

14. Contribution to Linguistics:
Many believe that works on Sanskrit gave way to modern linguistics.
It’s one of the world’s Oldest Languages!
Panini was a Sanskrit grammarian who gave a comprehensive and scientific theory of phonetics,
phonology, and morphology. Sanskrit was the classical literary language of the Indian Hindus and
Panini is considered the founder of the language and literature. It is interesting to note that the word
"Sanskrit" means "complete" or "perfect" and it was thought of as the divine language, or language of
the gods.

15. Sanskrit has
undergone most
aspects of language
revitalization

16. Implementation by the state
―The state’s anxiety both about Sanskrit’s role in shaping the historical identity of the Hindu
nation and about its contemporary vitality has manifested itself in substantial new funding
for Sanskrit education, and in the declaration of 1999 –2000 as the ―Year of Sanskrit,‖ with
plans for conversation camps, debate and essay competitions, drama festivals,
and the like. This anxiety has a longer and rather melancholy history in independent India, far
Antedating the rise of the BJP. Sanskrit was introduced into the Eighth
Schedule of the Constitution of India (1949) as a recognized language of the
new State of India, ensuring it all the benefits accorded the other fourteen (now
seventeen) spoken languages listed. This status largely meant funding for Sanskrit colleges
and universities, and for a national organization to stimulate the
study of the language‖. (Sheldon Pullock)
Sheldon Pullock is a professor od Sanskrit and Indian studies at the University of Colombia.

17. It is recognized as an International
Language
Consider this course description given by the University of Toronto- these reasons can be viewed as reasons for revitalization of the language
Why Study Sanskrit?
• The oldest surviving documents written in an Indo-European language are written in Sanskrit. Its grammar is the closest to Proto Indo-
European, as it has, for example, retained more of Proto Indo-European’s cases than other Indo-European languages have.
• It is the cornerstone of scholarship recognizing the deep linguistic affinities between Europe and Asia.
• The importance of the Sanskrit language for the study of Asia can hardly be overestimated; what Greek and Latin have been to Western
history, Sanskrit is to the histories, religions, cultures, and societies of Asia.
• Its "discovery" by British colonialists in India was instrumental in generating the field of comparative linguistics.
• For more than three millennia Sanskrit was the lingua franca of the Indian subcontinent, the language of science, knowledge, and culture.
• It formed the basis of several of the world’s great religions — Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, and
was the primary language for the production of knowledge in these traditions.
• It would be difficult to study any of these religions in their South Asian phases without knowledge of Sanskrit.
• Its spread formed the basis for literacy in much of South and Southeast Asia, as well as Tibet and even today its influence can be widely
evident in these areas.
• One of the great classical languages of the world, the Sanskrit languages renowned for the sophistication of its phonetic structure and
is the basis for many of modern South Asia’s languages—Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi—as well as the classical Prakrit
and the language of Buddhist scripture, Pali.

18. The University of Toronto also
ventures to give some interesting
facts
• Sanskrit belongs to the Indo-European family of languages and therefore shares many
similarities in structure and vocabulary to many European languages (this includes
English
• Sanskrit had an elite status in South Asia and was closely connected to religion. ( Pulock
attributed this to the decline of Sancrit in The Death of Sanscrit‖) For millennia,
however, it was also the primary language for literature and the arts, as well as for
sciences and other branches of knowledge. Like Latin for Christianity, few people spoke
it at home. However, nowadays there are several communities in India that practise
spoken Sanskrit and use it regularly.
• Some of the oldest texts of the world were composed in Sanskrit — around 1500-2000
BCE?
• The first Sanskrit texts were composed orally, in such tight poetic meter that they have
been preserved virtually without change to this day?
• Many European intellectuals in the nineteenth century were influenced
by Sanskrit poetry? For example, the German author Goethe borrowed
from the great Sanskrit playwright Kalidasa forthe Vorspiel auf dem Theatre in Faust.
• The first texts on yoga were composed in Sanskrit?
• "Zen" is the Japanese pronunciation of a Chinese word ("chan"), which is a Chinese
pronunciation of a Sanskrit word ("dhyan"), meaning "meditation"?

19. According to an article by Meera Vohra in
The Times of India, published in May of
2011
―Sanskrit has been defined as the language of the
rishi's( saints)but in the present times it stands as
gradually becoming a lingua franca of the Internet
savvy, youngsters who are showing deep interest in
the language and even forming Sanskrit speaking
communities.”
According to Professor K.D. Tripathi,
of the Baneras Hindu University,
Sanskrit is still spoken in villages of
Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh in
India as a first language.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMWostFw
wJc&feature=related