ABSTRACT
This chapter develops a set of research methods for analysing language revitalisation practice and data, established through collaborative processes involving community-based language revitalisation practitioners and linguists. It provides a way of understanding language revitalisation as a process that seeks to balance the ancient and the contemporary in terms of language content, form, and practice as well as in terms of the deep-lying goals that drive language revitalisation. The chapter summarizes the patterns that emerge, laying the foundation for a contextual typology of language revitalisation. It highlights the meanings of language revitalisation events and artefacts in relation to broader community reclamation goals of cultural identity, strength, and autonomy. Revitalising a language is far more than 'simply' a matter of reconstituting the historical language so that people can relearn its words, sounds, and grammar. The chapter also explores some possible models for more fluid movement of people identified with particular groups.
