Question about saying

[Alicia Fuentes-Calle]

This sentence is by Malian author Amadou Hampâté Bâ, it goes  “In Africa,
when an old person dies, it is like a whole
library is being burned”

On Sun, Mar 14, 2010 at 8:08 PM, MJ Hardman <hardman at ufl.edu> wrote:

> I believe in this list I first read a saying  regarding the death of a
> speaker of a threatened language that goes something like:
> When an elder dies a library dies.
> Do any of you know this one, its origin and how it really goes?
> I want to use this in regard to the death of my comadre.  Her loss does
> make
> what we are trying to do in spite of the Ministry more difficult.  Just
> when
> I thought we had a full good-faith commitment, they found a technical way
> to
> postpone another year! Meanwhile, children are switching to Spanish without
> the necessary commitment to the language required by use in the schools.
> Dr.
> Bautista first knocked on the doors of the Ministry nearly 70, yes 70,
> years
> ago.  After a few years he was sent to SIL (there being no linguistics
> then); for one day he knew that writing his language was possible.  Then a
> little over 50 years ago I appeared, and we started knocking on the doors
> together.  As  a Peruvian friend explained, there are only us, the same
> through all the years, while every year or two the Ministry changes people
> and they can start the barrier arranging anew.  Even as the laws now say
> language preservation, the action is language destruction.  I have been
> wondering whether Dr. Bautista and I will manage to see this in our
> lifetime.  70 years.  And one more library gone.  And they don't get it.
> MJ
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ilat/attachments/20100314/516a3cdd/attachment.htm>