Identity, speech community, and language concepts in language documentation. A sociolinguistic approach

Abstract

Documentation of endangered languages has fostered a new discipline in linguistics, namely documentary linguistics and it has undergone many changes in its general approach in recent years. Mainly focussed on language description initially, it has evolved towards a deeper documentation of language practices within communities and, more recently, made a concrete contribution of linguists to speech communities for revitalisation of their languages, wherever this is the community’s desire. Despite the changes that have occurred in the approach of many language documentation projects, it is still necessary to focus our attention on some issues which are crucial in the documentation of any language. Therefore, before moving towards the main issue of this paper – that is, what counts as language in language documentation – it is necessary to undertake a reflection on some basic concepts such as identity and speech community, as well as on the we-concept. The aim is to clarify for the reader the basic assumptions that I adopt in considering what counts as language in language documentation. I will start with the identity concept: therefore, I will discuss the concepts of ‘we’ and ‘speech community’, and I will propose some concluding remarks which offer further reflections on the language description and documentation framework.