Tribal languages dying could later be resurrected (fwd)

[Mia Kalish (LFP)]

You know, I think things have to be useful to get people's interest. I think
there is a lot to be learned from native language revitalization efforts. .
. I don't think that is a bad thing. I think it's a good thing because it
gets people to think. It gets people to consider things they hadn't
considered before. 

:-) ??

Mia

-----Original Message-----
From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU]
On Behalf Of jess tauber
Sent: Saturday, July 23, 2005 9:09 PM
To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
Subject: Re: [ILAT] Tribal languages dying could later be resurrected (fwd)

This is not the first time I've seen espoused the notion that a native
language's worth is largely in its potential utility to the industrial
world- I guess once we have tracked down all the medically useful plants,
animals and inanimate substances known to native speakers we can then sigh
in relief and let the languages in question die peaceful deaths. Nice
attitude. A hell of a way to get the general public to care about language
endangerment.

Jess Tauber
phonosemantics at earthlink.net