Don ’t take language for granted (fwd link)

[Aidan Wilson]

/*More* /than 7,000?

Apart from this figure being double that which Harrison and Anderson so 
publicly announced a few months ago, is this not becoming a bit of an 
overly repeated number? Especially since one huge point that emerged out 
of the 'language extinction hot-spots' debate was that it was 
dramatically simplistic.

For one thing, the language I have been researching is smack-bang in the 
middle of the (by memory) second-most severe hotspot and has fewer than 
5 competent speakers, all elderly (by Indigenous Australians' standards, 
so unfortunately), yet is not mentioned.

Hmm. I don't want to reignite the debate necessarily, I really only 
wanted to draw attention to a) the error in this title, and b) the 
disproportionate over-representation of this figure in the media over 
the months since its initial publication (which I suppose is to be 
expected).

-Aidan

On 18/02/08 04:10, phil cash cash said:
> Don’t take language for granted
> Monica Davis, 16 February 2008, Saturday
>
> More than 7,000 languages will die over the next century, leaving a dangerous
> vacuum in the human body politic. For it is the language of the people, which
> reflects its soul, and the cumulative soul of the human race is slowly
> disintegrating.
>
> Full article lin below:
> http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=129352
>
>   
-- 
Aidan Wilson

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