Saving a language, preserving a culture (fwd link)

[Joan Gross]

Farsi isn't an Arabic dialect. It's Indo-European, not Semitic.


On 1/7/08 8:53 AM, "phil cash cash" <cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU> wrote:

> 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.
> 
> To access full article, follow the link below:
> http://www.daily-times.com/ci_7893452?source=most_emailed