Language erosion: You don't hear that often... (fwd link)

[Phillip E Cash Cash]

Language erosion: You don't hear that often...
The discovery of a previously unknown language in the foothills of the
Himalayas bucks a trend of extinction and decline, says Laura Spinney

Tuesday, 16 November 2010
UK

Tomorrow is World Languages Day, and it seems appropriate to announce
a happy but increasingly uncommon event: the discovery of a previously
unknown language in the foothills of the Himalayas.

Koro, as the language is called, is spoken by hill tribes living in
the northeastern state of India called Arunachal Pradesh, near the
borders with China and Burma. Its discovery bucks a trend, since
linguists have estimated that at least half of the roughly 7,000
extant human languages will be dead or moribund – meaning that
children will not be able to speak them – by 2100. In fact, Koro was
first identified by a team of Indian language surveyors in 2003, but
its findings were never published. The three linguists who announced
their "discovery" of Koro last month travelled to the remote Indian
province as part of National Geographic's Enduring Voices project, to
record two other, little-known languages belonging to the
Tibeto-Burman language family, Aka and Miju, and rediscovered Koro by
accident.

Access full article below:
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/language-erosion-you-dont-hear-that-often-2134915.html