Unwritten languages no longer being used struggle to survive (fwd link)

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Unwritten languages no longer being used struggle to survive

By Nicole C. Brambila • The Desert Sun • April 5, 2008

The Cahuilla language is dying, like the bighorn sheep, a shaman once foretold.
Alvino Siva hopes he won’t see the death knell in his lifetime.
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“We’ve lost so much,” the 85-year-old Los Coyotes bird singer says said.

He pulls pulled out a rattle and between his weathered hands coaxes coaxed it to
sing an ancient song for the creator he does not understand. He learned — as all
bird singers have — the unwritten, traditional ceremony songs passed down for
thousands of years from one singer to the next.

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