<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:times new roman,new york,times,serif;font-size:12pt">Wasn't this posted from another source sometime back?<br><div><br></div><div style="font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><br><div style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:13px"><font size="2" face="Tahoma"><hr size="1"><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">From:</span></b> Harold Schiffman <hfsclpp@gmail.com><br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> lp <lgpolicy-list@groups.sas.upenn.edu><br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Mon, June 13, 2011 9:52:19 AM<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> [lg policy] Language at risk of dying out ? the last two speakers aren't talking<br></font><br>
Forwarded From: <a target="_blank" href="http://guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> <<a ymailto="mailto:noreply@guardian.co.uk" href="mailto:noreply@guardian.co.uk">noreply@guardian.co.uk</a>><br>Date: Mon, Jun 13, 2011 at 8:52 AM<br><br><br><br>Erdal Ayan spotted this on the guardian.co.uk site and thought you<br>should see it.<br><br>To see this story with its related links on the guardian.co.uk site,<br><span>go to <a target="_blank" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/13/mexico-language-ayapaneco-dying-out">http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/13/mexico-language-ayapaneco-dying-out</a></span><br><br>Language at risk of dying out ? the last two speakers aren't talking<br><br>Trouble in Tabasco for centuries-old Ayapaneco tongue as<br>anthropologists race to compile dictionary of Nuumte Oote<br><br>? Get the data: the full list of endangered languages<br><span>[<a target="_blank"
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/apr/15/language-extinct-endangered">http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/apr/15/language-extinct-endangered</a>]</span><br><br>Jo Tuckman in Mexico City<br>Thursday April 14 2011<br>The Guardian<br><br><br><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/13/mexico-language-ayapaneco-dying-out" target="_blank">http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/13/mexico-language-ayapaneco-dying-out</a><br><br><br>The language of Ayapaneco has been spoken in the land now known as<br>Mexico for centuries. It has survived the Spanish conquest, seen off<br>wars, revolutions, famines and floods. But now, like so many other<br>indigenous languages, it's at risk of extinction.<br><br>There are just two people left who can speak it fluently ? but they<br>refuse to talk to each other. Manuel Segovia, 75, and Isidro<br>Velazquez, 69, live 500 metres apart in the village of Ayapa in the<br>tropical lowlands of the
southern state of Tabasco. It is not clear<br>whether there is a long-buried argument behind their mutual avoidance,<br>but people who know them say they have never really enjoyed each<br>other's company.<br><br>"They don't have a lot in common," says Daniel Suslak, a linguistic<br>anthropologist from Indiana University, who is involved with a project<br>to produce a dictionary of Ayapaneco. Segovia, he says, can be "a<br>little prickly" and Velazquez, who is "more stoic," rarely likes to<br>leave his home.<br><br>The dictionary is part of a race against time to revitalise the<br>language before it is definitively too late. "When I was a boy<br>everybody spoke it," Segovia told the Guardian by phone. "It's<br>disappeared little by little, and now I suppose it might die with me."<br><br>Segovia, who denied any active animosity with Velazquez, retained the<br>habit of speaking Ayapaneco by conversing with his brother until he<br>died
about a decade ago. Segovia still uses it with his son and wife<br>who understand him, but cannot produce more than a few words<br>themselves. Velazquez reputedly does not regularly talk to anybody in<br>his native tongue anymore.<br><br>Suslak says Ayapaneco has always been a "linguistic island" surrounded<br>by much stronger indigenous languages.<br><br>Its demise was sealed by the advent of education in Spanish in the mid<br>20th century, which for several decades included the explicit<br>prohibition on indigenous children speaking anything else.<br>Urbanisation and migration from the 1970s then ensured the break-up of<br>the core group of speakers concentrated in the village. "It's a sad<br>story," says Suslak, "but you have to be really impressed by how long<br>it has hung around."<br><br>There are 68 different indigenous languages in Mexico, further<br>subdivided into 364 variations. A handful of other Mexican indigenous<br>languages are also in
danger of extinction, though Ayapaneco is the<br>most extreme case.<br><br>The name Ayapaneco is an imposition by outsiders, and Segovia and<br>Velazquez call their language Nuumte Oote, which means the True Voice.<br>They speak different versions of this truth and tend to disagree over<br>details, which doesn't help their relationship. The dictionary, which<br>is due out later this year, will contain both versions.<br><br>The National Indigenous Language Institute is also planning a last<br>attempt to get classes going in which the last two surviving speakers<br>can pass their knowledge on to other locals. Previous efforts have<br>failed to take hold due to lack of funding and limited enthusiasm.<br><br>"I bought pencils and notebooks myself," Segovia complains. "The<br>classes would start off full and then the pupils would stop coming."<br><br>Suslak says the language is particularly rich in what he calls sound<br>symbolic expressions that often take
their inspiration from nature,<br>such as kolo-golo-nay, translated as "to gobble like a turkey".<br><br><br>Endangered languages<br><br>Ter Sami<br><br>Spoken by only two elderly people in the Kola peninsula in the<br>north-west of Russia. Had about 450 speakers at the end of the 19th<br>century until it was prohibited in schools in the 1930s.<br><br>Kayardild<br><br>Kayardild is spoken fluently by four people ? all elderly Aboriginals<br>? on Bentinck and Mornington Islands in Queensland, Australia.<br><br>Lengilu<br><br>Language from the north-eastern area of Kalimantan, Indonesia. Lengilu<br>was at one stage spoken by 10 people. Today, there are only four.<br><br>Mabire<br><br>Three people reportedly speak Mabire in the Oulek village of Chad. The<br>chief of the Mabire is the only Mabire speaker in his village so<br>people doubt whether he is still fluent.<br><br>Tehuelche<br><br>Originally the language of nomadic hunters in Chile. The last
four<br>speakers live in Patagonia, Argentina.<br><br>Emine Sinmaz<br><br><br>If you have any questions about this email, please contact the<br>guardian.co.uk user help desk: <a ymailto="mailto:userhelp@guardian.co.uk" href="mailto:userhelp@guardian.co.uk">userhelp@guardian.co.uk</a>.<br><br><br>guardian.co.uk Copyright (c) Guardian News and Media Limited. 2011<br>Registered in England and Wales No. 908396<br>Registered office: PO Box 68164, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1P 2AP<br>Please consider the environment before printing this email.<br>------------------------------------------------------------------<br>Visit guardian.co.uk - newspaper website of the year<br><a target="_blank" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">www.guardian.co.uk</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://www.observer.co.uk">www.observer.co.uk</a><br><br>The Guardian Public Services Awards 2011, in partnership with Hays,<br>recognise and reward outstanding performance from
public, private and<br>voluntary sector teams.<br>To find out more and to nominate a deserving team or individual,<br>visit <a target="_blank" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/publicservicesawards">www.guardian.co.uk/publicservicesawards</a>. Entries close 15 July.<br><br>On your mobile, visit <a target="_blank" href="http://m.guardian.co.uk">m.guardian.co.uk</a> or download the new Guardian<br>iPhone app <a target="_blank" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/iphone">www.guardian.co.uk/iphone</a><br><br>To save up to 30% when you subscribe to the Guardian and the Observer<br>visit <a target="_blank" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/subscriber">www.guardian.co.uk/subscriber</a><br>---------------------------------------------------------------------<br>This e-mail and all attachments are confidential and may also<br>be privileged. If you are not the named recipient, please notify<br>the sender and delete the e-mail and all attachments immediately.<br>Do not
disclose the contents to another person. You may not use<br>the information for any purpose, or store, or copy, it in any way.<br><br>Guardian News & Media Limited is not liable for any computer<br>viruses or other material transmitted with or as part of this<br>e-mail. You should employ virus checking software.<br><br>Guardian News & Media Limited<br><br>A member of Guardian Media Group plc<br>Registered Office<br>PO Box 68164<br>Kings Place<br>90 York Way<br>London<br>N1P 2AP<br><br>Registered in England Number 908396<br><br><br><br><br>-- <br>**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to<br>its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner<br>or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents.<br>Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal,<br>and to write directly to the original sender of any
offensive message.<br> A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman,<br>Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to<br><a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************<br><br>_______________________________________________<br>This message came to you by way of the lgpolicy-list mailing list<br><a ymailto="mailto:lgpolicy-list@groups.sas.upenn.edu" href="mailto:lgpolicy-list@groups.sas.upenn.edu">lgpolicy-list@groups.sas.upenn.edu</a><br>To manage your subscription unsubscribe, or arrange digest format: <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/lgpolicy-list" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/lgpolicy-list</a><br></div></div>
</div></body></html>