Language death in song

[Mark Mandel]

A friend of mine told on her
blog<http://cadhla.livejournal.com/1454518.html>of how she was walking
down the street in San Francisco singing a song
written by some friends of hers, which "sings to the pain of language,
culture, and a people lost", when ...

as I was turning off of Market Street, blithely sallying on by, a man
grabbed my arm. To quote this unexpected participant in my day:

"I am so sorry, I really didn't mean to, I'm not trying to -- IS THAT ABOUT
HUMBOLDT'S PARROT?!"

Dude.

Turns out the gentleman is a professor of linguistics at a local college,
and has been using that story in his classes for years now. So today, in my
capacity as walking billboard, I sold a copy of an album that hasn't even
been released yet.

The song lyrics, for anyone interested, are
here<http://vixyish.livejournal.com/658538.html>.
"The album is unfortunately not available yet; it'll be released in April.
It will be available through CDBaby -- look for it under the title
'Thirteen' or the artist name 'Vixy and Tony'."

(Posted by permission.)

--
Mark Mandel

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org