“Half of the 6,000 plus spoken language s today wi =?UTF-8?Q?l_l_disappear_by_the_end_of_t_he_century.=E2=80=9D_?=(fwd link)

[Richard Zane Smith]

The statement, according to statistical "certainty"
“Half of the 6,000 plus spoken languages today will disappear by the end of
the century.”
of course, MIGHT be true. I also know from experience, you can have all the
best and latest techniques available,
but the language remains comatose because true language revitalization is
not considered IMPORTANT ENOUGH.

This week The Wyandotte Nation is holding a "Culture week" here in Oklahoma.
The WN Administration yearly flies two linguists down to do a language
class for three hours(a year) so tribal members can go home
with a nice little phrase or to "impress people at Walmart" as the Cultural
Chairman expressed on the WN website .

Visiting tribal members will get just enough language to be inoculated
against the dedicated WORK of any actual revitalization effort.
It is not only discouraging its ridiculous. So engineers of colonization
plans, can put another feather in their cap, laughing all the way.
this is getting so discouraging folks...makes me wonder at times if I'm
just wasting my life ....till i hear kids singing in Wyandot
the silly little songs I taught 'em in school....but its still discouraging.

-Richard


On Mon, Sep 3, 2012 at 10:53 AM, Lindsay Marean <lmarean at bensay.org> wrote:

>  Did I misread this article?  Did the author really just write that the
> solution to language endangerment abroad is for the United States to swoop
> in with funding for Rosetta Stone products?  I wonder how much awareness
> the author has of the state of indigenous languages right here in the good
> ol' US of A?
>
> Good eye as always, Phil, for news of language endangerment/revitalization
> in the media.  Did this article catch anyone else in their cranky shoes, or
> just me?
>
> Lindsay
>
> On 9/2/12 2:30 PM, Phillip E Cash Cash wrote:
>
>
>
> By Eddie Walsh
> September 2, 2012
>
> According to UNESCO, “half of the 6,000 plus spoken languages today will
> disappear by the end of the century” if the world fails to take action to
> preserve endangered languages.
>
> The situation in the Pacific is particularly troubling. The Statistics
> section under the “Resources” tab of the Atlas of the World’s Languages in
> Danger shows that well over a hundred native languages are listed as
> vulnerable or endangered in Pacific ACP (African, Caribbean, and Pacific
> Group of States) countries. If one considers the larger Pacific Islands
> Forum region, the number soars to several hundred, with 108 vulnerable and
> endangered languages in Australia alone.
>
> Access full article below:
>
> http://thediplomat.com/sport-culture/2012/09/02/saving-endangered-pacific-languages/
>
>
>


-- 

 "…revitalizing our language is really just an act of returning to what we
are supposed to be. It is like a fish returning to the water, breathing and
living once again. "Xh'unei Lance E. Twitchell (Tlingit)
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richardzanesmith.wordpress.com

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