Endangered Languages Library

Hawaiian, one of two official languages in the state of Hawaii, is spoken by 8,000 of 400,000 ethnic Hawaiians and used in all domains, including oral literature, songs, and religion. This is a huge drop from the 37,000 native speakers in the 19th century, as travel to and from Hawaiia sharply increased and the status of Hawaiian dropped. As the number of immigrants and the status of English continued to rise, English became “the medium and basis of instruction in all public and private schools” according to the 1896 Laws of the Republic of Hawaii. Most importantly, the native speakers wanted their children to speak English in order to succeed, so they refrained from using Hawaiian at home.

In recent decades, there have been many efforts to promote the language. The first Punana Leo, which is an immersion preschool for children between the ages of two and five years old, was opened on September 4, 1984. Later, the Kula Kaiapuni, a system of immersion schools from elementary to high school, was opened as a continuation of the Punana Leo. The University of Hawaii offers a BA in the Hawaiian language and, in 1998, established the first teacher preparation program specifically aimed at preparing Kula Kaiapuni teachers. Other programs such as the Ke A’a Makalei project have been instituted to expand Hawaiian into other domains outside the classroom, such as a Hawaiian-speaking baseball league.

Today, there are 11 Punana Leo preschools and 1500 students in grades kindergarten to grade 12 in the Kula Kaiapuni program. In 1999, the first class of students entirely educated in the Hawaiian Language Immersion Program graduated from high school. Hawaiian has the most developed movement in indigenous language-medium education in the United States.

Daryl Baldwin, pioneer of the Miami language revitalization effort

Miami is a Native American language formerly spoken in the United States. It was spoken around the Midwest including Illinois, Missouri, Indiana and places along the Mississippi. The language was spoken by the Inoca, Kaskaskia, Peoria, Tamaroa, Cahokia, and Mitchigamea tribes. During colonization the speakers of Miami were displaced from their territories into northeastern Oklahoma.

Despite the lack of speakers there is a strong revitalization effort. The first revitalization effort came from a man named Daryl Baldwin. He saw the importance of keeping his culture and language alive and started a summer camp where he taught children Miami language and culture. He believed that if he was able to spark interest in the youth about Miami he would be able to create a group of people who where willing to help revive the language and culture. Furthermore he has raised his children as first-generation native Miami speakers. One of the strongest revitalization efforts today comes from The Myaamia Project at Miami University. They state their goals as the exploration and the use of technology for the development and transmission of language and culture.

The creation of computer based interactive educational programs has sparked interest in Miami language and culture. Such language revitalization efforts are made difficult by the fact that there is no one to teach the language: there is the need for the language to be reconstructed from past documentation of the language, and Miami has been fortunate enough in having plenty of such resources to work from.