On thin ice: language, culture and environment in the Arctic
- Lenore A. Grenoble
Abstract
Arctic indigenous languages provide excellent examples for studying issues of language sustainability. In the Arctic, as elsewhere, language vitality is linked to overall vitality of the speakers, their physical, mental and social well-being, and their ability to determine their own lifestyle, means of subsistence, and language. The issues of how communities can sustain languages and linguistic ecologies are closely linked to issues of sustainable human development, a position which is foundational to the Arctic Council Sustainable Development Working Group’s Work Plan for 2009-2011 (SDWG 2009) and clearly articulated in the Tromsø Declaration (2009). In the present paper I consider language sustainability within the context of community sustainability and argue that the two are inseparable. That is, language sustainability is at once an integral part of overall cultural sustainability while, at the same time, language usage needs to be understood within the broader context of sustainability. Accelerated climate change in the Arctic has already had significant effects on the physical environment and thus on Arctic ways of life, which in turn has an impact on language vitality and issues of sustainability and adaptability. In many parts of the Arctic, adaptability is viewed as key to long-term survival of both language and...
Keywords: Arctic, Siberia, Greenland, indigenous languages, language vitality, language ecology, language sustainability, subsistence, adaptability
How to Cite:
Grenoble, L., (2011) “On thin ice: language, culture and environment in the Arctic”, Language Documentation and Description 9, 14-34. doi: https://doi.org/10.25894/ldd203
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