Within the linguistic study ofendangered languages, sociolinguists distinguish between differentspeaker types based on the type ofcompetence they have acquired of the endangered language. Often when a community is gradually shifting away from an endangered language to a majority language, not all speakers acquire full linguistic competence; instead, speakers have varying degrees and types of competence depending on their exposure to the minority language in their upbringing. The relevance of speaker types in cases of language shift was first noted byNancy Dorian, who coined the term semi-speaker to refer to those speakers of Sutherland Gaelic who were predominantly English-speaking and whose Gaelic competence was limited and showed considerable influence from English.[1][2] Later studies added additional speaker types such as rememberers (who remember some words and phrases but have little or no grammatical competence and do not actively speak the language), andpassive speakers (who have nearly full comprehension competence but do not actively speak the language). In the context of language revitalization, new speakers who have learned the endangered language as a second language are sometimes distinguished.[3][4][5]
In contexts of language acquisition and language teaching studies, there is sometimes a distinction betweennative speakers andsecond language speakers, depending on whether the language was learned as a language of primary socialisation or after having fully acquired a first language. In contexts ofmultilingualism a bilingual speaker may also be described as aheritage speaker (although a heritage language actually refers to a language whose speakers have moved from the original area where the language was spoken: e.g. Welsh is a heritage language in Patagonia, but not in Wales) if they have not been as fully exposed to one of their languages, leading to a diminished degree of confidence in themselves as speakers, and sometimes also limited competence in one of their languages.
Arememberer knows individual words or phrases (sometimes entire texts) but cannot use the target language productively. Such persons are of particular interest when studying anyendangered ordying language.[6] Rememberers are contrasted withfluent or full speakers, who have a good command of the language, and semi-speakers, who have a partial command of it.[7] The distinction between fluent speakers and rememberers is important in fieldwork, but accurately determining where a member of a language community falls on the speaker-rememberer continuum can be challenging.[8]
Apassive speaker (also referred to as areceptive bilingual orpassive bilingual) has had enough exposure to a language in childhood to have anative-like comprehension of it but has little or no active command of it. Such speakers are especially common inlanguage shift communities in which speakers of a declining language do not acquire active competence. For example, around 10% of theAinu people who speak the language are considered passive speakers.
Passive speakers are often targeted inlanguage revival efforts to increase the number of speakers of a language quickly, as they are likely to gain active and near-native speaking skills more quickly than those with no knowledge of the language. They are also found in areas where people grow up hearing another language outside their family with no formal education.
Afluent speaker is someone who has a good command of the language.
Asemi-speaker is a speaker who has acquired at the least a basiclinguistic competence in a given language but does not generally use it regularly in conversation. Their speech can contain erroneous forms. Semi-speakers are often among the most motivated and engaged participants in language revitalization projects.[5] As languages become obsolete andspeech communities shift to other languages, the earlier language is spoken less frequently and in fewer social domains. Many speakers learn the language partially, often with simplification and significant influence from the majority language. They are sometimes referred to as "semi-speakers", "quasi-speakers" or "rememberers".
The word "semi-speaker" was introduced by linguistNancy Dorian in describing the last speakers of theEast Sutherland dialect ofScottish Gaelic.[2][1]
When semi-speakers form a significant part of the speech community,language contraction often ensues, as the linguistic norms are accommodated to speakers' competences.[9][10]
Aterminal speaker is the lastnative speaker of a language; when the terminal speaker dies, they end the final step of thelanguage death process, and the language becomes adead or extinct language.[11] In the process of language death, the remaining speakers begin to lose some of the vocabulary and grammar of the language. When only a terminal speaker remains, that person will not remember a complete form of the language as it had been spoken by a larger community which used it in all domains.
Terminal speakers are usually bilingual by the time of their death, remembering theirheritage language but interacting with their community in another language. The importance of that distinction is seen in the story ofDolly Pentreath ofCornwall. She is popularly named as the last fluent, first-language speaker ofCornish, although there were others who still spoke it for many years, though possibly incompletely. Terminal speakers are sometimes found by linguistsdocumenting a language before it dies. A clear example of a terminal speaker being contacted by a linguist is the case of Abegaz, the last speaker of theMesmes language in Ethiopia.[12] He lived in an isolated, hilly area, and was about 80 years old when he was contacted by a team of sociolinguisticlanguage surveyors; he has since died.Tevfik Esenç was the last speaker of theUbykh language, and his collaboration with linguists helped document the language before his death in 1992.[13]Ned Maddrell was the last speaker of theManx language before its revival, dying in 1974. In 2008,Doris McLemore was reported to be the terminal speaker of theWichita language as she worked with a team of linguists to document the language before it died completely.[14]