ABSTRACT
Languages are often described as ‘living things’ that are either vibrant, thriving, strong, or surviving; or threatened, dying or dead (Dorian 1989, Crystal 2000, Blommaert and May, both this volume).1 A small, ‘less used’, or minority language will ‘live’ or ‘die’ depending on a range of factors, including the number of its speakers, its relative geographic isolation (and hence degree of contact with a more powerful language), and its prestige in institutional domains such as the media, schools, religion, or the job market. Indigenous languages are often considered the most ‘threatened’, since they are spoken by people who have entered into colonial relationships, which tend to favour the use of one or more dominant language varieties.
