An ancestral voice revived (fwd link)

[Phillip E Cash Cash]

An ancestral voice revived

BY MARK CARDWELL, FREELANCE
MARCH 27, 2010 3:02 AM

It's shortly before 7 p.m. on Monday when the participants in a unique
experiment in Canadian culture start filing into a classroom on this
tiny reserve at the north end of Quebec City.

As they enter, they greet each other with traditional words of welcome
in Wendat, their ancestral tongue.

Some say "kwe" (pronounced "kway"), others "ndio." Within minutes,
class begins. For the next two hours, the 16 students - an equal
number of men and women between the ages of 15 and 76 - talk, laugh,
listen and learn a language that has been neither spoken nor heard on
Earth for more than a century.

Welcome to the Yawenda Project - a million-dollar, federally funded
initiative that aims to revive the use of Wendat as a second language
on this reserve of about 1,500 people.

Access full article below:
http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/ancestral+voice+revived/2732550/story.html