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--></style><title>Re: Last speaker of Bo died -- question about how
many Ame</title></head><body>
<div><font color="#000000">Here is one answer to the question in a
recent interchange of how many American Indian languages there
are/were:</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">When Europeans arrived, there were c. 280
languages in the US, 51 families (+isolates). All the c.150 surviving
languages are endangered.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">In North America (US & Canada), of 312
known languages, 123 are extinct (40%). Of 58 families (+isolates), 29
are extinct (50%); of 26 isolates, 20 are extinct (77%). Many others
will soon follow.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">South America: 112 families and isolates,
53 families and 59 isolates. c.420 languages are still spoken;
there were once 1,491 (according to Loukotka 1968), 72%
extinct.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Since American Indian languages were also
mentioned in global comparison, let me add a bit more.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">North America's 180 language families
(+isolates) [58 North America, 10 Central America, 112 South America]
= 51% of the linguistic diversity of the world, c.350 families
(+isolates). The world's total number of language isolates: 127; in
the Americas: 83 (65% of the world's isolates).</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">America's proportion of the world's
linguistic diversity: 51% (180 of the world's total of c.350 families
(+isolates)).</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">More broadly, already 106 of the
approximately 350 independent language families (including isolates)
of the world are extinct, 30%.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">These figures are very misleading, however,
in a significant sense: of the c. 150 surviving American Indian
languages in the US, only 20 are being learned actively by children in
traditional transmission, and even for many of these 20, every year
fewer and fewer children are learning them. Very shortly, this set of
numbers and percentages will change dramatically (unless
revitalization efforts are successful) ... a tragedy painful beyond
contemplation.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Best,</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Lyle</font></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Incorrect assumption. Straight question.
To which, by nature, a straight answer is asked.<br>
mg<br>
<br>
Scríobh Jeroen Ruigrok van der Werven:<br>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><tt>-On [20100205 12:01], Marion Gunn
(</tt><a href="mailto:mgunn@egt.ie"><tt>mgunn@egt.ie</tt></a><tt>)
wrote:<br>
</tt><br>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><tt>American languages are the most
obvious examples, Jeroen. How many American<br>
languages were/are there?<br>
</tt><br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><tt><br>
I assume the question is rhetorical in nature?</tt></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<x-sigsep><pre>--
</pre></x-sigsep>
<div><font size="-1" color="#000000"><br>
<font face="Arial Narrow"><b>Dr. Lyle Campbell,</b><br>
Professor of Linguistics, Director, Center for American Indian
Languages<br>
Dept. of Linguistics, University of Utah, LNCO 2300<br>
255 S. Central Campus Drive,<br>
Salt Lake City, Utah 84112-0492 USA <br>
Tel. 801-581-3441 (my Ling. office), 801-587-0716 (my CAIL office)<br>
801-581-8047 (Dept. of Linguistics), 801-587-0720 (CAIL), Fax
801-585-7351<br>
http://linguistics.utah.edu/?module=facultyDetails&personId=167<span
></span>&orgId=301</font></font><br>
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