Surviving the Broadcast Media in Small Language Communities

Abstract

The broadcast media challenge the survival of small languages as never before. To date the result largely has been negative, since broadcast media can penetrate to the remote areas that often shelter small languages and can invade even the strongest small‐language sanctuary ‐‐ the home. Where modern media have been enlisted to serve small languages, the uses to which the small languages have been put have been mostly serious and usually educational. This emphasis on the serious overlooks the strongest attributes of most small languages: their rich individuality as repositories of local flavour and folk tradition. These could be mustered for use in broadcasting to great effect and benefit in the support of beleaguered small languages.