1Pangasinan—An Endangered Language? Retrospect and Prospect

Languages worldwide are disappearing at an unprecedented rate. Because this has implications for cultural identities and knowledge systems, members of a language group must be aware of the factors that lead to language demise for them to make informed decisions about measures that ensure language continuation into the future. This article discusses some of the processes related to indigenous language loss or maintenance in relation to the decline of Pangasinan, the Philippines’s eighth largest language. It provides an overview of the current viability of Philippine languages, and summarizes the history of language policy in the Philippines. It concludes by examining a scenario in which globalization may yield unexpected opportunities for language revitalization