Waves of Language Diversity Loss in Japan: An Ecological and Theoretical Account

In this paper, I examine the arrival of a new population in the Japanese Archipelago between the ninth century BCE and the third century CE and its effects on language ecologies and the historical and geographic distribution of linguistic diversity in the archipelago. After the language ecologies of Japan stabilize for several centuries afterward, they became upset again by the rise of language nationalism in Meiji Period Japan (1868-1912). I depict how language nationalism led to language endangerment and show how it continues to shape beliefs about language in contemporary Japan, also within language revitalization activities and policies themselves. Language revitalization requires language ideological clarification, a recalibration of the relations between the majority and minorities, and fundamentally new language policies.