The aim of this paper is to document the forces that led first to
the decay and then the revival of the ancestral language of the Malay
diaspora of Sri Lanka. We first sketch the background of the origins
of the language in terms of intense contact and multilingual transfer;
then analyze the forces that led to a significant language shift and
consequent loss, as well as the factors responsible for the recent
survival of the language. In doing so we focus in particular on the
ideologies of language upheld within the community, as well as on
the role of external agents in the lifecycle of the community