“The simplest way to keep a language alive is to ensure that the children speak it, and the simplest way to accomplish this is to teach them when they are infants.” This statement by Bauman (1980, p. 4) could be termed the First Law of Language Retention. Applying this principle to real life, however, is far from simple, because children learn their language from adults. Language loss in fact begins when parents no longer teach their own language to their children, usually because they themselves have come to see it as of little value or importance. Reversing this trend is difficult. Parents will need much encouragement, training and support in order for such efforts to be successful. Nonetheless, if the community has chosen as its goal any type of full or reduced bilingualism, or true language revival, it must place the family at the centre of its strategy.

Mark Fettes – A Guide to Language Strategies for First Nations Communities, Assembly of First Nations Language and Literacy Secretariat, December 1992