A language kept alive on life support, literally

[Benjamin Barrett]

Historically, it's generally been the opposite: "You Indian, you better
speak English and get rid of your unchristian ways". Today, I think it's
safe to say that nearly every NA tribe in the US (for starters) has a
program or a strong interest in reviving their language. I don't think
there's any linguist trying to force native tongues on their peoples,
but there are linguists working to preserve tongues that some  peoples
aren't interested in saving just in case those peoples someday do want
to revive them. BB

Charles Doyle wrote:
> In my Milton class, when asked to explain what the literary scholars (with decorous Latinity) term Adam's "uxoriousness," I defined it (with decorous clipping) as his being "whipped." The students, nearly all white, understood immediately, perfectly, and guffawingly.
>
> But I agree with Wilson's (and Dennis B's) point about language preservation. It's a form of prescriptivism: "You, little peasant native boy, ought to talk like your great-grandparents!"
>
> --Charlie
> ____________________________________________________________
>
> ---- Original message ----
>
>> Date: Sat, 19 Jan 2008 20:23:20 +0000
>> From: ronbutters at AOL.COM
>>
>> Well, "pussy-whipped" is not an exclusively BE expression. It seems to me likely that it did not even originate in BE.
>>
>> -----------------------------
>>
>> Wilson writes:
>> there are even expressions in BE that can't quite be translated into sE, e.g. "pussy-whipped" is not simply an obscene way of saying "hen-pecked."
>>

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