small vital languages

[Michael Walsh]

Steven 

I can confirm that Murriny Patha is alive and well - still being learned by children. The rough estimate is 2500 speakers [the Indigenous population of Wadeye, NT, where it has become the lingua franca]  but it's probable that there are other speakers - particularly at places like Kununurra, WA.

Inevitably some loan words from English have been ingested. Otherwise there has been some reduction in knowledge of the more arcane reaches of an awesome morphology.

Best regards

Michael


-----Original Message-----
From: stevenbird1 at gmail.com on behalf of Steven Bird
Sent: Thu 12/23/2010 5:05 PM
To: rnlist
Subject: small vital languages
 
Can anyone suggest the names of languages having small speaker
populations that still have a good level of intergenerational transfer
and good survival prospects?

Thanks,
-Steven Bird

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