Universities partner to dying save languages (fwd link)

[Phillip E Cash Cash]

Universities partner to dying save languagesBy Diane Smith Fort Worth
Star-Telegram © 2011 The Associated PressJune 11, 2011, 3:21PM
USA

ARLINGTON, Texas — Hutke Fields pictures a time when younger generations of
Natchez people use his tribe's native tongue at ceremonies, while sharing
oral histories and during everyday talk at home.

But Field's vision is complicated by the fact that only six people, out of
about 10,000 members of the Natchez tribe in Oklahoma, still speak the
language.

"We'll lose it if we don't use it," said Fields, who received assistance
last year during a workshop dedicated to helping American Indian communities
in Oklahoma to bring back disappearing languages.

Fields is a participant in the Breath of Life project — a joint effort by
experts from the University of Texas at Arlington and the University of
Oklahoma — in which linguists mentor American Indians so they can better
recover endangered languages.


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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/7606368.html
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