Welsh sites secure languages future (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Welsh sites secure languages future

Jun 21 2007
by Robin Turner, Western Mail
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200wales/tm_headline=welsh-joins-navajo-and-breton-as-the-coolest-languages-on-the-internet&method=full&objectid=19330469&siteid=50082-name_page.html

THE internet has been hailed as the possible saviour of the Welsh language
by one of the world’s leading linguists.

While experts forecast nearly half of the 6,500 languages currently spoken
around the world face extinction by the turn of the century, Professor
David Crystal says devotees of Welsh should not worry too much.

He says that along with relatively small languages like Breton and Navajo,
Welsh has become “cool” for youngsters thanks to websites and chat rooms.

He said, “The internet offers endangered languages a chance to have a public
voice in a way that would not have been possible before.”

Although born in Northern Ireland, Professor Crystal, author of the
Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Language, grew up in Holyhead and has been a
longstanding champion of the Welsh language.

He said, “It doesn’t matter how much activism you engage in on behalf of a
language if you don’t attract the teenagers, the parents of the next
generation of children.

“And what turns teenagers on more than the internet these days? If you can
get a language out there, the youngsters are much more likely to think it’s
cool.

“There are dozens of internet entries in endangered languages, from native
American Cherokee to the Austronesian language Tetum, spoken by less than a
million people in East Timor, to the Maori language of New Zealand.

“Chat rooms exist for Welsh speakers where young people look for the best
pubs in town, or hunt for potential dates.”

Professor Crystal said there are 50 to 60 languages in the world which have
one last speaker, and around 2,000 have never been written.

“If these languages die, they are gone forever. This is a huge intellectual
loss to humanity. The internet is very important in this respect,” he said.

Money is required for internet access, however, which can be a problem for
African and indigenous South American languages where governments favour
Spanish, French and English.

Professor Crystal added, “There are about 6,500 languages spoken around the
world at the moment and roughly half are endangered.

“If you compare it with the green situation, the plants and animals are
disappearing but the worst estimate is for 3% to 5% to disappear. This
figure rises to 50% for languages.”

The respected author, who is honorary Professor of Linguistics at the
University of Wales, Bangor, predicts a language will die every two weeks
on average over the next decade.

In the US, a total of 69 of the country’s 311 languages are nearly extinct,
including some forms of Apache and Pawnee. More are endangered.

While some argue global communication will get easier the fewer languages
there are, Professor Crystal says the loss of a language equals the loss of
people’s identity.

He said,“The intellectual health of the planet needs that kind of diversity
to be creative. If we all spoke the same language, and therefore thought in
the same way, there would be blandness.”

Unesco has a list of hundreds of languages it regards as endangered. A
language with just 100 or so speakers may not be considered endangered if
it is thriving – but many endangered languages have few young speakers and
others face political oppression. The organisation has published a “red
list” of those which could soon be extinct. But Professor Crystal says
Welsh, which after years of decline is starting to see the number of
speakers increase, is a beacon of hope.

And he says the internet and chat rooms are playing a major part in the
revival.

He said, “It is now dead easy to get your language in front of the rest of
the world.

“There are now more than 100 chat rooms in the Welsh language alone.”

Some of the world’s ‘smaller’ languages

Mohawk Spoken on the Canada/USA border, it has around 3,000 speakers
distributed among the tribe’s Bear, Wolf and Turtle clans and is part of
the native American Iroquoian family of languages.

How to say hello: Kwe

Wymysorys A Central German language spoken by around 70 people in the town
of Wilamowice between Silesia and Poland. It emerged from 12th century
Middle High German and was spoken by German, Dutch and Scottish settlers in
the town.

Hello: Sgioekumt

Hawaiian Along with English, Hawaiian is the official language of the state
of Hawaii. It is an Austronesian language taking its name from the largest
island in the tropical North Pacific archipelago.