One Additional Argument for Literacy
In addition to literacy for recording cultural and linguistic knowledge and expanding intellectuality, there is one additional reason why literacy is important for language maintenance or revitalization. In her examination of the Cherokee syllabary and consequent literacy, Cushman (2011) links Cherokee literacy with identity.
To this point, I have been arguing that the Cherokee syllabary has played a crucial role in facilitating Cherokee’s efforts to maintain a sense of peoplehood through profound social and cultural change….Whenever the syllabary is present, the four aspects of peoplehood can potentially be present as well: language, sacred history, religion, and place. Like any tool endowed with various meanings by the people who use it, the Cherokee writing system has been a central part of language perseverance efforts in secular and national intiatives (187).
Since literacy and literature is associated with H functions of a language, having a body of literature in an endangered language can only contribute to the maintenance of a language while at the same time promoting the identity of the people themselves. Cushman (2011) suggested that literacy can complete the identity of a people, especially during the 21st century. The linguistic elaboration necessary for the perpetuation of a complete language may exist in Olson’s (1977) academic literacy or continue to exist in traditional ceremonies and storytelling (Akinasso, 1981, 1982). In some languages, there is potential for both realms.
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