Last bid to save language of Kenyan ex-cave dwellers (fwd link)

[Phillip E Cash Cash]

Last bid to save language of Kenyan ex-cave dwellers

By Boris Bachorz (AFP) – 13 hours ago

DOLDOL, Kenya — Half a dozen old men, draped in traditional blankets,
are chatting under an acacia tree here in the foothills of Mount
Kenya; when they die the Yaaku language will die with them.

Its disappearance is unlikely to make headlines: over the past three
generations more than 200 languages have disappeared and 2,500 others
are in danger of disappearing, out of a total of 6,000 in existence,
according to the Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger, published
by UNESCO.

Except that these elders -- many of whom are so old they no longer
have teeth -- have decided to fight for the survival of Yaaku.

"We are the last Yaaku speakers and before our generation disappears
we need to pass our knowledge on to the children," 87-year-old Johana
Saroney Ole Matunge told AFP.

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