<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div>Lena you have initiated a vigorous and healthy discussion on a topic of great concern to most of the First Nations language champions I work with. For them, the term "sleeping language" has come to mean languages that have little or no documentation and no remaining speakers. In British Columbia, there are considered to be 34 distinct languages and 2 "sleeping languages". </div><div><br></div><div>On that basis, the sleeping metaphor would not serve the purpose you intend. My personal favorite of all the great suggestions is Christian's tree metaphor. </div><div><br></div><div>Thanks for triggering a great debate, and best wishes with your plan to spread the word to the next generation of language activists!</div><div><br></div><div>Peter Brand</div><div><a href="http://www.FPCC.ca">www.FPCC.ca</a></div><div><br></div><div>PS: Peter Austin's email is set to auto reply while he's away on assignment, so he probably won't be catching the debate he joined at the outset.</div><div><br>On 2013-09-01, at 13:07, Lena Terhart <<a href="mailto:lena.terhart@GMX.DE">lena.terhart@GMX.DE</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div>In Germany, every now and then budget cuts in the educational sector are announced. In the protests against it, there frequently appear coffins and words from the death and funeral semantic fields in connection with "education" or specific school subjects like maths, biology etc. Would anybody seriously think that these people believe that education is dead? No! They use a metaphor to express their fear that the quality of education might diminish with the budget cut. <div>Analogically, I would interpret a coffin to represent the concern that language diversity - symbolized by words in many different languages - is diminishing.<div>Some of you find the metaphor offensive, apparently because they do not interpret the different words as a symbol of language diversity but to represent the individual languages that are consequently classified as dying or dead. Yes, I agree that given this interpretation the coffin is a terrible metaphor. Would those of you prefer the tree metaphor proposed by Christian Chiarcos? I also thought about another symbol as Dorothea Hoffmann pointed out to me the term "sleeping languages" used by Ghilad Zuckermann. Building on the sleeping metaphor, words of different endangered languages could be arranged in a bed - maybe together with an alarm clock to symbolize the possibility of waking up. However, the bed has the same disadvantage as the coffin that the words arranged on it may be misinterpreted to stand for the individual languages they come from and that consequently all those languages are classified "sleeping languages".</div><div><br></div><div>If I got it right, others of you think that language endangerment is not a topic to be displayed at a museum at all, because it is too negative, and it should be replaced by revitalization or language diversity. My opinion is that language revitalization is nothing that is easily understood, unless you have understood that there are languages that cease to be transmitted to the next generations. An exhibit on language diversity would certainly convey a more positive image, but could be as well realized without any small or endangered language. And even if those languages are included, the concern over diminishing diversity could easily be overlooked.</div><div><br></div><div>Lena Terhart</div><div><br></div><div>PS: Thanks to all of you who have send me word lists and encouraging e-mails!</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><div>Am 01.09.2013 um 19:04 schrieb Serena d'Agostino:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite">I agree.<br>A negative vision of the issue and the use of negative reinforcement are not the best options.<br>I have already commented to Terralingua that their logo - an half dry branch coming out of a reclined head - looked too mortuary. <br><br>People interested in EL should choose to have a positive vision of the vitality and richnes of languages: <br>it is our involvement that will make the difference.<br> Regards Serena d'Agostino<br><br><br><span>Le 31/08/13, <b class="name">Doug Whalen </b> <<a href="mailto:whalen@HASKINS.YALE.EDU">whalen@HASKINS.YALE.EDU</a>> a écrit :</span><blockquote cite="mid:1377970525.16622@haskins.yale.edu" class="iwcQuote" style="border-left: 1px solid #00F; padding-left: 13px; margin-left: 0;" type="cite"><div class="mimepart multipart mixed">This is a terrible idea. It tries to make a quick impression, but what will that impression be? Small languages = death. Do we like death? No. Therefore, we don't like small languages.<br><br>Imagine that you had an exhibit on species diversity and at the end, you got to toss a baby panda into a coffin. Strong metaphor? Yes. Appealing? I hope not.<br><br>Please do us a favor and leave the coffin out of your exhibit.<br><br>Doug Whalen DhW<br><br>Lena Terhart <<a href="mailto:lena.terhart@GMX.DE">lena.terhart@GMX.DE</a>> wrote ..<br>> Dear Colleagues,<br>> <br>> the UNIKATUM children's museum in Leipzig, Germany, is preparing an exhibition<br>> on language (<a href="http://www.kindermuseum-unikatum.de/papperlapapp.html" target="l">http://www.kindermuseum-unikatum.de/papperlapapp.html</a> in German).<br>> I thought it would be nice to present language endangerment as part of the exhibition<br>> and together with the responsible people of the museum, we are now thinking about<br>> one exhibit, probably a coffin that shall be filled with words that may die out.<br>> <br>> In order to present a big variety of endangered languages, I would like to ask<br>> you to contribute with<br>> - a list of max. 5 words in the endangered language (basic vocabulary, something<br>> that may be interesting for children, e.g. animals, plants, natural phenomena,<br>> or maybe also simple verbs)<br>> - in the orthographic convention you use<br>> - together with a translation<br>> - and some basic info about the geographic location and number and age of speakers<br>> or alternatively a link to your website where I can find the information<br>> <br>> Additionally, photographs of the speakers and/or environment could be very nice,<br>> and ideally also recordings of the words (MP3), but that is not a requisite - I<br>> know that the search for individual words and cutting process may be too time-consuming.<br>> <br>> The mounting of the exhibition will start on the 16th of september already so that<br>> I need the word lists until the 13th latest.<br>> <br>> Thanks!<br>> Lena<br></div></blockquote>
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