Saving a language, preserving a culture (fwd link)

[phil cash cash]

Saving a language, preserving a culture

By Alysa Landry The Daily Times
Article Launched: 01/06/2008 12:00:00 AM MST

FARMINGTON — Lorraine Manavi's second-floor office at San Juan College is an
unlikely place to learn Farsi.

The language professor is learning the Arabic dialect via the acclaimed Rosetta
Stone software between classes and in spare moments. It's the same software
Manavi is helping develop to teach her native language — Navajo.

"Navajo is very hard to learn," she said. "When people first come to my classes,
they are intimidated."

Manavi is part of a team of linguists, editors and native speakers launching a
year-long project to develop the first Navajo language learning system
accessible to anyone with a computer.

The software will be owned by the Cornville, Ariz.—based organization Navajo
Language Renaissance, and will be used to supplement Navajo language classes on
and off the reservation. It will not be part of Rosetta Stone's commercial
product line.

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