Revivalistics

In this book, Ghil'ad Zuckermann introduces revivalistics, a new trans-disciplinary field of enquiry surrounding language reclamation, revitalization, and reinvigoration. Applying lessons from the Hebrew revival of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to contemporary endangered
languages, Zuckermann takes readers along a fascinating and multifaceted journey into language revival and provides new insights into language genesis.

Beginning with a critical analysis of Israeli-the language resulting from the Hebrew revival-Zuckermann's radical theory contradicts conventional accounts of the Hebrew revival and challenges the family tree model of historical linguistics. Revivalistics demonstrates how grammatical
cross-fertilization with the revivalists' mother tongues is inevitable in the case of successful "revival languages." The second part of the book then applies these lessons from the Israeli language to revival movements in Australia and globally, describing the "why" and "how" of revivalistics. With
examples from the Barngarla Aboriginal language of South Australia, Zuckermann proposes ethical, aesthetic, and utilitarian reasons for language revival and offers practical methods for reviving languages.

Based on years of the author's research, fieldwork, and personal experience with language revivals all over the globe, Revivalistics offers ground-breaking theoretical and pragmatic contributions to the field of language reclamation, revitalization, and reinvigoration.

"This seminal book introduces revivalistics, a new trans-disciplinary field of enquiry surrounding language reclamation, revitalization and reinvigoration. The book is divided into two main parts that represent Zuckermann's fascinating and multifaceted journey into language revival, from the 'Promised Land' (Israel) to the 'Lucky Country' (Australia) and beyond. Part 1: language revival and cross-fertilization. The aim of this part is to suggest that due to the ubiquitous multiple causation, the reclamation of a no-longer spoken language is unlikely without cross-fertilization from the revivalists' mother tongue(s). Thus, one should expect revival efforts to result in a language with a hybridic genetic and typological character. The book highlights salient morphological, phonological, phonetic, syntactic, semantic and lexical features, illustrating the difficulty in determining a single source for the grammar of 'Israeli', the language resulting from the Hebrew revival. The European impact in these features is apparent inter alia in structure, semantics or productivity. Multiple causation is manifested in the Congruence Principle, according to which the more contributing languages a feature exists in, the more likely it is to persist in the emerging language. Consequently, the reality of linguistic genesis is far more complex than a simple family tree system allows. 'Revived' languages are unlikely to have a single parent. Part 2: language revival and wellbeing. The book then applies practical lessons (rather than clich�es) from the critical analysis of the Hebrew reclamation to other revival movements globally, and goes on to describe the why and how of language revival. The how includes practical, nitty-gritty methods for reclaiming 'sleeping beauties' such as the Barngarla Aboriginal language of Eyre Peninsula, South Australia, e.g. using what Zuckermann calls talknology (talk technology). The why includes ethical, aesthetic, and utilitarian reasons such as improving wellbeing and mental health"--

"This exuberant book by Ghil'ad Zuckermann sweeps from the revival of Hebrew in Israel to the revival of the Indigenous Barngarla language in South Australia, drawing common threads into a theory of what he has coined as 'revivalistics' . . . . In his characteristic high-spirited style, he
demonstrates this hybridity through detailed analysis of the phonology, syntax, morphology, and lexis of modern Israeli." -- TESOLANZ

"This groundbreaking linguistic manuscript is wide-ranging in its scope. . . . Zuckermann seeks to use the experience of the Hebrew revival to assist Barngarla, and through Barngarla, other Australian and global languages, in the process of revival. This is not the first Aboriginal language to
undergo revival, but Zuckermann's remarkable achievement came at the time, and arguably assisted in the process, of the recognition of the Barngarla people's native title. . . . Revivalistics is a masterpiece that is both scholarly and social-minded." -- Timothy Haines, The Australian Journal of
Anthropology

"To linguists Ghil'ad Zuckermann is already something of a hero. This book shows why. Professor Zuckermann's account of his work with language reclamation and salvation is as fascinating, enthralling and gripping as any great fictional adventure story, but with a purpose and meaning greater and more
noble than any Allan Quatermain or Indiana Jones." -- Stephen Fry

"In Revivalistics, technically rigorous in content yet approachable in presentation, Ghil'ad Zuckermann mounts a persuasive argument that the language spoken by ordinary Israelis is best thought of as a hybrid. He uses the story of the successful revival of Hebrew to propose how near-extinct
Aboriginal languages of Australia can be brought back to life with immeasurable benefit to their traditional owners. With a multitude of the world's languages staring oblivion in the face, this will be a key text for the new discipline that Zuckermann calls revivalistics." -- JM Coetzee

"Zuckermann is a polymath as well as a polyglot and Revivalistics is a brilliant study, challenging the conventional wisdom in its field, making good use of comparative material, sparkling with perceptive one-liners and making an eloquent argument for the revival of endangered languages." -- Peter
Burke, University of Cambridge

"Zuckermann gives a linguist's insider view of his native tongue, Hebrew as they now speak it in Israel, including its rollicking humor. He shows how a language could literally 'arise from the dead' but also how different is the task of reviving other languages today." -- Nicholas Ostler, Foundation
for Endangered Languages