Technical, emotional, and ideological issues in reversing language shift: examples from Southeast Alaska

Native American people across the nation have expressed concern over the loss of indigenous languages, and they have expressed a desire to do something to prevent it. The loss of small, tribal languages is a worldwide phenomenon and an international concern. In Alaska, only two of the twenty Native languages are now being learned by children in the traditional way of parents speaking to children (Krauss 1995b 12–3). If this trend continues, the other eighteen languages will eventually die. Unfortunately, it is not easy to understand and appreciate the process by which languages are lost, the actions we must take to prevent such loss, or the actions we must take to preserve and/or restore endangered languages.